Hands-Off Technology Instruction - A Revolutionary Idea

For months I’ve been envious of some of my colleagues who seem to have unlimited Microsoft Excel powers. Somehow I missed the boat on Excel skills though I see on a daily basis how useful it can be in the world of educational leadership. I decided to find an Excel training course so I, too, could be proficient with this useful application.

The day of the training finally arrived last week and, as it silly as it sounds, I looked forward to the class with much anticipation. I made my way downtown to the hotel conference center, made my way to the conference room, and signed in (of course I was the first one there). I walked into the conference room, greeted my instructor and surveyed the room. The first thing I noticed was the huge screen at the front of the room; so far so good. Next, however, I noticed the tables set up neatly throughout the room. The water glasses seemed awfully close together and the tables seemed to be conspicuously devoid of computer drops, power strips, charging stations or any other computer accessories.

I made my way to the end of a table nearest the outlet in the wall and turned to speak to my instructor. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Will there be other places for us to charge our laptops?”
Instructor: “No. No one else will be using a computer.”
Me: “Seriously? We won’t be using computers?”
Editorial Note: Reminder - this is a Microsoft Excel training.
Instructor: “We’ll be working from a workbook. This is very hands-off.”

Stunned, I sat down to process the conversation. As I replayed the conversation in my head and came to the realization that the instructor indeed had said we’d be learning a computer application with hands-off, workbook training, I closed my gaping mouth and reached for my pen. I completed my course evaluation, dropped the form on the desk next to my instructor without saying a word, then walked out. I did take the workbook with me, by the way.

This whole episode got me thinking, though. We’ve spent a huge amount of money at school on cameras and software for our digital photography courses, and on computers and software for our technology courses. How short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible of us! Imagine the money we could have saved over the last few years; we could have spent just a fraction of those funds on workbooks for the students instead! Hands-off technology training, or technology training with no technology – now that’s out-of-the box thinking. What a revolutionary idea! Thank you, Fred Pryor Seminars, for this revolutionary paradigm shift in technology education.

Professional Development on a Budget

I'm hearing from colleagues and reading in various publications that schools and districts are cutting back professional development budgets to help ease the economic burden with which schools and districts are trying to cope. Rather than get into the reasons why this practice is a terrible idea, I thought I'd propose a viable professional development alternative for schools and districts no longer able to send teachers and administrators to conferences, seminars and traditional off-site professional development.

For the cost of one book per participant, along with perhaps a meal or two along the way, as an educational leaders you can create professional learning communities within your division, school or district. A professional learning community can be as simple as a group of educators committed to reading and discussing a common book. On the other hand, a professional learning community could be a group of teachers or administrators committed to weekly meetings to discuss a book, articles, research, teaching practices and more, over the course of a year or more.

Some of my faculty are beginning a professional learning community centered on a book called Never Work Harder Than Your Students. Elsewhere on our campus other grade-level teams and content departments will be working through Engaging Grammar and Directing the Writing Workshop. While I'm fortunate enough to be at a school where leadership values professional development to the extent that we are not being forced to cut the professional development budget, we see great value in fostering a sense of lifelong learning, gleaning wisdom and knowledge from the educators we have on campus, and generating meaningful conversation amongst our teachers.

The Eagle Experience: A Community-Wide Experience that Began with a Book

One of the most rewarding days of my educational career occurred last week when months of planning and preparation materialized into an unforgettable experience at my school. I'll begin this story in the spring of last school year. I wanted to create a community-building experienced centered on meaningful summer reading for all my high school students, faculty, staff and administration. My vision for this experience, known at my school as The Eagle Experience, was threefold:

• Provide a meaningful book for all students, faculty, staff and administration to read over the summer
• Devote a class session or two in each content area to some aspect of the book during the following school year soon after all returned to school
• Bring the author of the book onto campus to address the high school and then to spend some intimate time with students and faculty

After several meetings with campus leaders to discuss possible books for The Eagle Experience, we decided on a gripping and true story by Ltc. Brian Birdwell, Refined by Fire. The book, initially recommended by one of last year's seniors, tells the story of Birdwell, a survivor of the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11. Badly burned over most of his body, Birdwell overcame incredible odds to survive and to eventually return to work. In the book, Birdwell tells of his agony, his faith and his family's struggles throughout the ordeal.

We contacted Birdwell's publicist, ordered over 500 books and made arrangements for Birdwell to come to our school in August. Everyone in the high school received a book then read it over the summer knowing we would be discussing the book in class and hosting the author for a day. It didn't take long for parents and grandparents alike to borrow their students' books to read. Everyone got in on the act over the summer and in the first few weeks of school.

After much anticipation, Ltc. Birdwell arrived and told his story to an awestruck audience. Tears flowed freely as students and adults sat motionless listening to the miraculous story of his struggles, his faith and his recovery. After addressing the students and adults in an assembly, Birdwell spent time with several students, the student council, the senior class officers and a number of classes.

A number of media outlets sent reporters to document the day. Two television stations ran the story, The Advocate ran a print story and two local magazines are working on their print stories now. The buzz generated by this experience, not an original idea by any means, has been phenomenal.

The Eagle Experience has made an immediate impact on our school community. Additionally, we may never know the long-lasting and far-reaching impact of the experience for our families. The extensive amount of work and planning required to make this happen for our school pales in comparison to the benefits received by all who participated in The Eagle Experience. Now, how to top this next year...

Below: Ltc. Brian Birdwell and I shake hands after he spoke to the students, faculty, administration and families.

New Study Says Online Instruction Better than Traditional Instruction?

I remember having a conversation with a crusty, old, and ready-to-move-out-to-pasture teacher during my first year of teaching. We were standing outside a small closet containing a few 386 computers (we called it a computer lab then) when he said, "One day we won't have jobs 'cause them new computers will be teaching classes for us and probably doing better at it." I'm wondering now if that luddite might have been an oracle.

SRI International just published a report for the Department of Education entitled Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. In other words, SRI International conducted a meta-analysis of empirical (evidence-based) studies of online learning then published its findings. The study's findings can be boiled down to one simple sentence, taken from the study's abstract, "...on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction." (In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. - from wikipedia)

In other words, based on online learning studies between 1996 and 2008, evidence indicates that students learning online outperformed students learning in traditional face-to-face settings. While the study goes on to say, "caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)," I have to believe that today's digital learners, especially the motivated ones in grades 9-12, can experience similar results in certain content areas.

This study has prompted me to contact a few educators in the field of educational technology, some of whom are associated with the Louisiana Virtual School, to get their take on the study, its findings and its implications for online learning in K-12 and 9-12 settings. When I've collected their feedback, I'll post a follow-up to this post.

___________________________________________________________________

Full Abstract from Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies:

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).

My Prayer for the New School Year

As you return to school for a new year full of hope and potential, I ask you to stop for just a moment to reflect on the words of W.E.B. DuBois as written in his Prayers for Dark People. The first passage below, in the words of DuBois, is my prayer for your students. The second passage below, again in the words of DuBois, is my prayer for schools and educators across the land. May God bless the new school year and may he bring you peace and success this year.

"Let us remember, O God, that our religion in life is expressed in our work, and therefore in this school it is shown in the way we conquer our studies—not entirely in our marks but in the honesty of our endeavour, the thoroughness of our accomplishment and the singleness and purity of our purpose. In school life there is but one unforgivable sin and that is to know how to study and to be able to study, and then to waste and throw away God’s time and opportunity. From this blasphemy deliver us all, O God. Amen”

"God bless all schools and forward the great work of education for which we stand. Arouse within us and within our land a deep realization of the seriousness of our problem of training children. On them rests the future work and thought and sentiment and goodness of the world. If here and elsewhere we train the lazy and shallow, the self-indulgent and the frivolous--if we destroy reason and religion and do not rebuild, help us, O God, to realize how heavy is our responsibility and how great the cost. The school of today is the world of tomorrow and today and tomorrow are Thine, O God. Amen"