Monday June 24, 2007 Reflections from BS

Mondays have been, for the longest time, my favorite day of the week.
I love trying to get everything into a Monday that might actually fit an entire week... just to challenge myself.
Today was, by far, an exception to a typical Monday.
It was almost .... a month of Mondays.

There is an analogy here, of course.
It has to do with packing large days into small sound bites and stringing them like Christmas lights, traveling at 75MPH, across the darkness of my own ignorance.
I have entered the age of hyper enlightenment.
There is more to learn, and more immediacy in the need to own it all, intellectually.

The conference is an info-fest, and although I cannot possibly get it all in, I can certainly try.

The best learning I experienced today:


I realized, as I listened to the smarties at the Verizon-sponsored Thinkfinity.com panel discussion, that I was obsolete. I have been technically surpassed by my 10 year old, the new 'Screenager' , as Jim Rubillo, Exec Dir, NCTM, called her. Just like the distant stars in our aging galaxy whose light arrives long after the star has expired, by the time I arrived at this idea, I could easily be thought of as an intellectual granny. Information is changing so rapidly, that the next generation of techno-savvy is only a next younger sibling to a five year old.

Ok - enough reflective rambling.... let me tell about what I learned, and what I did...

Between 8:30 and 10:30

Armed with my conference canvas bag, it’s chipper black and green handles perched lightly on my left shoulder, I explored.
Where is Murphy?
It promised a wealth of different applications of technology in classrooms and schools that I was quite honestly starving to see.
I wanted to see what happens when trained professionals bring technology into the lives of children, instead of just ‘mom’.

As it turned out, Murphy was a large, open space that was tagged with numbers, in a random-assignment format.

I learned this from a person in a bright yellow shirt holding a sign with a big question mark on it. She was born to tell me where to go … and I was grateful.

There were whole constellations of ideas, plastered up in million color displays, blinged out with glitzy projection tools, gadgets, and gizmos. Arthur C. Clarke saw me coming when he spouted his theory about technology appearing to be magic.

It certainly was a Hogwarts experience, to look into the ordinary lives of our contemporary learners.

What was the best part? There were kids there! They were sharing their work, in an articulate, polished, thoughtful way. There were a number of poster presentations that I wanted to see in my own children’s schools.

The one that might be helpful across the board was the Warrior Wizards, offered by Jan Farnam of Sanchez Middle School in Texas. This was a rich and rigorous application of Harry Potter meets his ‘Second Life’ avatar at Sanchez. Ms. Farnam brought the literary elements into the lives of reluctant readers in a manner that I found enticing, and her students found irresistible.

After a walk-about of reading, listening, and learning about more than 30 applications of educational technology, I headed off to room B201, where the research was. I was hoping to discover the meaning to life, or at least the evidence to account for spending money on technology. I wasn’t disappointed. In a cramped, out-of-the-way room with too many chairs and not nearly enough room for ideas, Hancock, Christensen, and Knezek shared their work linking student achievement and technology rich learning environments. I was familiar with Christensen’s work because one of my former doc students had requested and readily received permission to use her survey tools in his dissertation research, and I knew her work to be of quality.

It turns out that these three researchers have brought together a substantial national sample of Iowa Scores and corresponding technology integration data that speaks to increased student achievement.

They were cautious in the presentation of their findings, hinting at the possibility that techno-rich pedagogy implied achievement gains, while reiterating the need for further investigation.

When they were finished, they invited school districts to participate in their research, as they would be continuing it.

Thank goodness.

We emphatically need strong empirical evidence to support the decisions we make, ‘technology’ or, innovation, is not always effective at presenting a solid investment-benefit argument.

Around 11:30… I proceeded to the lowest level… where all the sales people were, to buy a cup of coffee and seek out a potential pen or highlighter. I had also noted on my book of vendors (holy cow! There was a whole book dedicated solely to what was for sale!) that I should visit a host of assessment-related booths, to ask questions and learn about where the technology for the field is headed.

Conferences are a great place to learn, and top notch sales people are generally very good teachers.

I secretly wondered if I would be able to find a pen as I rode three sets of escalators, thinking how I needed a cup of coffee. Looking toward the ceiling for guidance, I realized the aisles sported dangling numbers… 900… 1000… 1100… all the way up toooooo … who knew. I would have to map it out and plan a strategic review. There were 100's of vendors here. 45 minutes later, coffee drunk and the canvas bag leaning heavily into my right shoulder, I muscled my way toward the escalators and headed upstairs.

I had successfully obtained a pen, a set of pencils, a pink highlighter, four demo cd’s, an armload of assessment literature, a pokemon pen, a Quizdom air freshener, two tee shirts that would make for wonderful kid-jamas, 36 business cards from new friends, and did I mention a new pen? I had four that were readily accessible in the handy front pocket of my small canvas bag.

I needed to get to the next big thing… a session in progress about Passing notes in Cyberspace, room B405. The presentation is excellent, offering timely information and some actual examples that Mr. Calen Tichenor knows we will all be downloading and integrating into next year’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). I make a mental note to write him an email, request permission to modify his work and cite him at the end of the document…

Deciding to skip lunch in order to get into the Thinkfinity.com presentation, I whistled my way to room B402… I didn’t want to miss a word of what Verizon and their corporate friends had to say about teaching for the 21st Century Workforce.

In fact, I am very interested in what corporate minds are thinking about where our graduating students need to be.

Having listened intently to Thomas Friedman and Malcolm Gladwell at the CT Forum, and having called a service number for a credit card, insurance policy, and product warrantee in the last two years, I know the world is getting flatter… the Indian accents retreating behind typical American names with cool, Northeastern dialects.

I loved Macomb’s books and knew, as a nation, we were nearing a tipping point.

It was the best presentation of the day.

The President of the Verizon Foundation, who, I am happy to report, was a very distinguished, eloquent man, apparently not yet 45 and non-white, Mr. Patrick Gaston made me glad to be a US citizen, along side him. He talked about MarcoPolo, the wonderful teacher resource that Worldcom had started all those years ago… and how it had been reborn as ‘Thinkfinity.com’.

He introduced the session facilitator, the Senior VP of HR at Verizon, who managed, with some techno-challenges… to graciously maneuver through the session in a manner that celebrated and honored the distinguished panel effectively, and supportively. I was very happy to see that this person of power was also non-white, and a female.

Hats of to Verizon for making this flat world nod to skill and intellectual capacity, while embracing diversity.


Each panelist offered valuable insight into the future of our world. Especially profound were Mr. Rubillo’s insights. He made it very clear that as a nation,

the US is competing with other societies that value math and science as a
culture.

Anecdotally supported by the evidenced offered in Mr. Fari Ebrahimi’s brief survey of neighborhood HS grads, not one of the ten of which was planning a career in engineering, science, or mathematics, and further empirically supported by college graduation trends, as a culture these are not areas of value in the US, and this is becoming a problem. Mr. Ebrahimi went on to say that if we want to compete globally, we need rock stars… in science, and math, to shine a light on the path of success. He described an atypical LA, minority boy who went on to earn an MD from Harvard… powered by the remorse and powerlessness of watching his own brother’s death. He encouraged us to use what influence we have as educators to set learners on a path toward science, and personal best, even when their humble beginnings don’t trumpet, “I am ivy-league”.

My head still vibrating from the stretch of wrapping around the great ideas presented in the panel, I headed out… Murphy again… Murphy 4… copyright issues… Darn, but this is a vexing issue in these times, I arrive too late to do anything more than get a business card from the presenter, along with a promise to write… back to room B201… another group of research papers was being shared.

I met up with Kellah Eden, from the University of South Carolina. She talked about two different learning theories, behaviorism and social cognitivism, and the use of classroom clickers. Interestingly enough, through her research she learned that students using classroom assessment clickers as formative learning tools, which she defined as group quizzes not impacting final grades, were more engaged and interested in the class. Students in the behavioral framework class, who were required to participate with the assessment system as a component of their formal grading experience, reported greater anxiety about their learning.

I needed to fit just a little more into this Monday… so at about 11:30pm, when my day was finally over and my blog written, I planned to post my notes…. However, the technology failed me! The wireless connection was down... I had to wait until this morning.

Perhaps I tried to put too much into my Monday.

I'm so glad I get another two days!