Tech Disruptions

On “We Must Fire All Bad Teachers”

Cathie: You seem very upset, Elliot
Elliot: Did you see the March 15, 2010 cover of Newsweek?
Cathie: No, I …
Elliot: Newsweek has crossed the line into sensationalist journalism!!
Cathie: Oh gosh… I feel a rant coming.
Elliot: Rant? RANT? Me rant?
Cathie: Now I am sure ….
Elliot: …The cover says, and I quote, “The key to saving American Education” is “We must fire bad teachers.”
Cathie: Teacher bashing--a favorite American pastime.
Elliot: On so many levels Newsweek is wrong!
Cathie: Did you read the article?
Elliot: What do you think?
Cathie: Thought so.
Elliot: I don’t need to read the article; I can’t read the article; it’s too painful.
Cathie: Read the article, Elliot; then let’s talk.
Elliot: Ok, Ok, you’re right. BRB.
Cathie: We aren’t texting, remember.
Elliot: Oops – be right back!
Cathie: <patiently waiting – but also reading the Newsweek article>
Elliot: I’m back and it’s worse than just teacher bashing. Newsweek is saying that the fundamental problem with American education is bad teachers. Yes, there are teachers that should not be in classrooms and yes, there should be a mechanism to get those individuals out of the classroom, but firing the bad teachers will not fix America’s education system.
Cathie: During the auto industry meltdown, we didn’t see a magazine cover that said: Fire all the bad auto workers.
Elliot:  Right! No other profession takes such a public beating.  Maybe there should be a magazine cover saying “Fire all the Wall Street speculators.”
Cathie: Careful, careful…
Elliot: The problem with the Newsweek article is its simplistic analysis…
Cathie: …you mean its overly simplistic analysis.
Elliot: Newsweek’s unprofessional and naïve journalism doesn’t contribute to the solution.
Cathie: My, my, you are on a tear.  I wonder how our readers feel about this issue.
Elliot: There is no debate on this one!
Cathie: Now whose analysis is simplistic…
Elliot: <grumble, grumble> Stop being right all the time.
Cathie: Relax, relax... let’s hear what folks have to say!

Research-based findings: Smartphone usage in K12 leads to increased student achievement

Elliot: Hah, Hah, Hah -  We have the data! – Hah, Hah, hah! We have the data!
Cathie: Very mature, Elliot.
Elliot:  I don’t care; I am sooooo tired of folks taunting us by asking for research data that show that  using mobile learning devices…
Cathie:… you mean smartphones…
Elliot: … yes, yes, yes…. results in improved student achievement.
Cathie: Both the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration are big on using only “research-based” innovations in the classroom.
Elliot: Yeah, so where is the research that demonstrates that textbook usage leads to increased student achievement – but American schools spend billions of dollars buying textbooks.
Cathie: You are on a tear;  you must’ve eaten something that disagreed with you.  On second thought, that couldn’t be; you eat everything.
Elliot: Except orange vegetables.
Cathie: That’s right. How could I have forgotten that tidbit of rationality.
Elliot: Poke all the fun you want, but we have the goods –we have real data!  How about telling’em about the data from Nan Chiau Primary School in Singapore, please?
Cathie: My pleasure since you asked so nicely. Our colleagues Chee Kit Looi and Wenli Chen from the Learning Sciences Lab in Singapore’s National Institute of Education reported that the 3rd grade students at Nan Chiau Primary who have been using Windows Mobile smartphones for science for the past 12 months, scored higher than the other 5 comparable 3rd grade classes on a standardized science test.
Elliot: And the teacher had initially expressed her lack of confidence in teaching science content knowledge, and she did not think that she was a good science teacher then. After the intervention of the smartphone-enabled lessons, she felt more competent as a teacher and she is now more prepared to teach science. She said that what she taught to the class was no longer limited to the textbook. The use of the amartphones allowed her and the students to learn beyond the textbooks as the they were searching for answers to their questions.
Cathie: And, we need to point out that curriculum designed for the smartphone-using classroom integrated the state-mandated curriculum with the affordances of the smartphones. For example, students used the software app Sketchy on the smartphones to create detailed animations of the science processes, and they used the smartphone’s camera to take pictures of concrete objects in the world that illustrated the abstract ideas in the curriculum and they brought them back to the class for further inquiry and discussion
Elliot: That’s gold-standard science evidence. Now, let’s talk about some  evidence that’s closer to home.
Cathie: Last week, Mindy Dickerson, Principal at Cimarron Elementary School, Katy TX and Lenny Schad, CIO, of Katy school district reported that 5th graders ---150 of them --- using the same sort of smartphones used by the 3rd graders in Nan Chiau Primary scored 82% and 69% on the science and math Texas Benchmark TAKS tests, respectively, while last years’ 5th grades scored 50% and 40%, respectively.
Elliot: Those are whopping improvements in student achievement!
Cathie: And statistically speaking, we are not allowed to attribute causality…
Elliot:  Yeah, Yeah.. we can’t say that the smartphone usage led to increased student achievement. But, duh,  what else is going to account for such a whopping increase in student test scores!
Cathie: Mindy and Lenny both observed that the teachers were spending more time preparing the lessons…
Elliot: …and the students were spending more time doing the lessons because they actually were engaged and enjoying themselves. More time on task leads to increased student achievement. That is a research-based finding.
Cathie: Should I say, not suprisingly, the same sort of results as Katy's are coming from schools in St. Marys, OH, the largest mobile learning device installation in the US.
Elliot: "Not suprisingly" - very good! I told you so, I told you so! We can be boastful and proud – we have solid research-based evidence that smartphone usage…
Cathie: …along with an appropriate curriculum, where teachers are properly prepared, and the smartphones have educationally relevant software…
Elliot: … can lead to improved student achievement. And  I’m going to sing these results from the mountain tops.
Cathie: A suggestion: skip the singing.
Elliot: You always have the last word.
Cathie: That’s because I write  the last word.
Elliot: Aren’t you the clever one!

Cellphone Computers Are Not Management Headaches!

Cathie: I just read another article from a teacher who worries about the management issues involved in using cellphones in the classroom. This time I felt compelled to make a comment on the article.

Elliot: You must have been really galled to have actually gone to the trouble of registering at the site in order to add a comment. I have never known you to do something like that!

Cathie: We have to get people to see that there are other ways to use cellphones in the classroom!

Elliot: It is quite reasonable that teachers expect that they will have to use the cellphones the students themselves bring to class.

Cathie: Right! And using those student phones is fraught with challenges – management of the texting and phone calling being paramount.

Elliot: But there is another way: the school provides the cellphone.

Cathie: Yes, and the management problems virtually go away!

Elliot: Kristin Passaretti, a 5^th grade teacher in Saratoga Springs, NY, whose class is using school-provided cellphones, put it succinctly:

"We call them cellular computers. They're really smart phones. We don't call them that because they don't use phone capability or text capability, so we have kind of renamed them so the kids don't think they can use them in those ways,"

Elliot: As you pointed out in your comment to the article, some schools call those smartphones “mobile learning devices” to similarly distance the devices from cellphones.

Cathie: Of course, providing cellphone computers aka mobile learning devices aka smartphones to students is a real financial challenge for districts and that’s why teachers use the cellphones already in the students’ pockets.

Elliot: I can feel my blood pressure rising; here we go again. The “No Money in Schools” rationale.

Cathie: Easy now; remember your condition.

Elliot: Very funny; ha ha; ho ho. We need to deal with this “no money” argument!!

Cathie: Yes, Elliot; in another blog posting. <laughing> it’s time you took your beta-blocker.

Elliot: “One of these days, Alice. “

Cathie: You’re not Jackie Gleason…

Elliot:  if only….. He’s definitely one of my heroes. 

Please read the Kaiser Family Foundation Report on Technology Use by America’s Youth

Cathie: Just when you thought the youth of today couldn’t spend any more time on their electronic devices, a Kaiser Family Foundation report documents that they ARE spending more time!
Elliot: “The average young American now spends practically every waking minute – except for the time in school – using a smartphone, computer, …” That’s the lead line from the article on the report that appeared on the front page…
Cathie: … ABOVE the fold…
Elliot: …in the New York Times.
Cathie: We urge all of you to read the NY Times article; it will either confirm your worst fears of technology use by America’s youth or it will confirm your belief that schools need to stop fighting the kids about their technology use outside the classroom – and adopt it for use “in school.”
Elliot: People are busy; they won’t read it. So, here is one more quote from the same article: “…with media use so ubiquitous, it [is] time to stop arguing over whether it [is] good or bad and accept it as part of children’s environment…”
Cathie: “like the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat.”
Elliot: But, I’ve already read two comments about the findings in the study that are negative.
Cathie: .. only two?... both negative?
Elliot:  Only two and both negative, yes. I have mentioned this study to my colleagues and all I get is blank stares. It has not received any real attention in the education world.
Cathie:  That’s probably because the education world is so embroiled in testing, national curriculum, testing, stimulus funds, testing, etc., that it is really hard to hear this sort of news.
Elliot: Ha ha ha. Did you say “testing”?
Cathie: <smiles oh so brightly>
Elliot: And the current administration is going to re-up NCLB. Every educator knows that the testing focus is misguided.
Cathie: Careful, careful – “every” is a strong word.
Elliot: Every educator knows or should know!
Cathie: Let’s devote a blog posting…
Elliot: .. or ten…
Cathie: … to testing. But let’s end this one on a more positive note.
Elliot: Indeed!  What was that quote from a colleague in Colorado?
Cathie: It was Oregon…
Elliot: … picky, picky…
Cathie: … he said that technology for today’s youth is “like oxygen, essential and invisible.”

The iPad: the Ultimate CONSUMEr Gadget

Cathie: Steve Jobs is truly an amazing creator of electronic gadgets.
Elliot: Coming from a diehard “I’m a PC” that is quite a statement.
Cathie: Well, the latest device, Apple’s iPad gives new meaning to the term “consumer electronics.”
Elliot: Now it is your turn to be enigmatic.
Cathie: Look, he and Apple designed the iPod…
Elliot: …Yes, an MP3 player...
Cathie: …No, a music consuming device, a device that, in concert with the iTunes store enables consumers to consume music… enormous quantities of music.
Elliot: Yes, Apple’s iTunes store sells more music than any other store in the world – more than even WalMart.
Cathie: People see the iPod as a music playing device, but Apple sees it as a music purchasing device.
Elliot: And the iPhone is a…
Cathie: … an application purchasing device.
Elliot: But look at the jobs that Apple has created with its iTunes App Store.
Cathie: Absolutely!  It is wonderful what Apple has enabled –
Elliot: …they created a whole new marketplace for software developers …
Cathie: … and all those young developers like the students in your smartphone programming class at UMich…
Elliot: … absolutely – those young-in’s don’t know they can’t fly  so they create all manner of incredible, provocative, stuff!
Cathie: iVeryRudeNoise - provocative?? Well, provocative or not, Apple takes a nice chunk of the price for merely providing digital shelf space…
Elliot: …that costs Apple virtually nothing. So following your line of thinking, the iPad is a media purchasing device!
Cathie: Ah, your keen sense for the obvious has returned.
Elliot: I am resistant to your taunts; my clothes are made of kryptonite!
Cathie: Oh, so that’s why you are dressed so badly.
Elliot:  Oh oh oh -I don’t have a chance…  So, what you are really saying is that Apple is actually trying to be the largest retailer of digital media and entertainment in the world – bigger even than Amazon.
Cathie: Well, remember when Apple Computer, Inc., dropped the “computer” from their name?
Elliot: When Apple, Inc. was selling music on their iTunes store.
Cathie: Bingo! For Apple, selling computers is merely a means to an end.
Elliot: Apple creates devices…
Cathie: …that they sell for premium prices…
Elliot: … that consumers use to purchase more stuff from Apple.
Cathie: The iPad enables consumers to consume books, magazines, newspapers, video and games.
Elliot: So, when will Apple change the name of the iTunes store. 
Cathie: Never!  iTunes has become iconic for a retail media store in cyberspace.
Elliot: Cyberspace? Very clever - an antiquated term but one that is most appropriate in this context!
Cathie:  So, I wonder what Apple will think up next?
Elliot: The iPlate.
Cathie: Oh boy, here he goes…
Elliot: Yes, the iPlate so folks on diets can purchase iFoods .
Cathie: Yup, that’s the end of this blog posting!
Elliot: Hey, I was warming up.
Cathie: Couldn’t tell by me…. Oooops!