Am I An Anachronism?
21st Century Leaders
Not too long ago I was participating in a national meeting of K-12 CIOs, listening to a panel discussion on the latest developments in district IT shops. Although the three panelists were justifiably proud of their accomplishments, I was struck by the absence of a common component from almost all of the presentations and ensuing discussions. Yet I could not quite put my finger on what was missing.
The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I began to feel. I started to wonder if perhaps the unnerving feeling was due to a lack of familiarity with key concepts, a fear not uncommon to professionals who reach my age. I not only began to feel old, but wondered for the first time in my 39 years in education (34 in educational technology) if educational technology was passing me by.
My head was spinning. Was I becoming irrelevant? Were changes occurring at such a rate that I did not even know they were taking place? Put simply: Was I becoming an anachronism without even knowing it?
As an urban district technology leader for the past 22 years, I have tried to stay ahead of the curve and took pride in being able to marry ideas and concepts to reality. In recent years, for example, I directed the implementation of a GigE WAN throughout my district, along with a VoIP phone system, and instructional video streaming. Similarly, the district is changing its central information architecture and is in the middle of implementing an ERP. No, I don't think my feeling of discomfort is due to falling behind the technology curve.
Well, it's now 3:30 AM (one of my most productive times for problem solving), and I think I've figured it out: While differing in details, the CIOs who spoke at the conference all focused almost exclusively on the application of project management techniques. Indeed, each panelist showed off visual representations of relatively complex models using a large number of circles, squares, and other geometric forms in different colors.
As I considered the similarities of the project management-oriented presentations, I realized they were also very much alike in what they left out. In all three presentations, not one presenter (whom I respect for their accomplishments) mentioned words such as instruction, school, student, principal, or learning. I wondered if any of them had been to a school during the first week of classes or actually talked to a principal about one of the major information systems his or her staff had developed.
Unfortunately, there are CIOs, who, while designing systems to improve student achievement, have never visited a school, rarely talked to a principal, nor met with a curriculum coordinator. To remain aloof, distant, and even uncaring about the instructional side of the house cannot help a modern CIO, and, in the long term, will impair his or her IT program. It is difficult to get support from those you ignore.
Much of this attitude, I believe, stems from many IT directors coming into districts with little, if any, experience in education. Up until the last 7 to 10 years, IT leadership generally came from those who had years of K-12 experience. However, due to the increasing complexity of technology, the retirements of earlier generations of district-bred leaders, and the emphasis on accountability mandates, districts are increasingly hiring IT specialists from the private sector. This movement has transformed the meaning of IT from "instructional technology" to "information technology."
But while they may be experts in technology, these leaders too often have limited knowledge of the industry in which they function-education.
With a little effort, I believe the barriers between central IT and the schools can be significantly reduced. I suggest some of these for a start:
Set up a CIO/Principals' Advisory Committee to meet every month or two to discuss issues of importance. I did this at my district because it keeps me close to what's important at the ground level, and it lets me know how well my technology team is doing (The principals sometimes tell a different story than my managers.) Also, it lets me test out and gain support for new ideas.
Distribute a quarterly newsletter to key groups in schools. In my setting, for example, I wanted to increase rapport with school technology specialists. Although my leadership team and I frequently attend their monthly meetings, we felt an informational newsletter focusing on their particular needs would help. To see a sample newsletter, visit www.ccsd.net/tls/Newsletter/oct06/newsletter-full.htm (Note: Some of the links will not work outside the district intranet.)
Speak at technology events at schools or those sponsored by different district groups. Virtually all districts have some type of technology-related events going on, whether it is third graders showing off their PowerPoint presentations, a high school robotics competition, or the computer club meeting. While you certainly don't need to attend all of them, occasionally participating in one will help break down the barriers between the schools and your IT organization.
Visit a school. One of the things I enjoy doing, and don't do nearly enough, is to visit a school to see how technology is being used by staff and students. Usually I call up the principal the day before or the day of my trip, and ask if it is okay for me to visit the school for one hour. I assure principals that I'm not there to check on them and that I just need to visit some schools for my own mental health. Almost always they're delighted to host me and have the technology specialist take me around. It's a great opportunity to show off something they are quite proud of and/or hit me up for something special. Either way, I have won.
Support innovative instructional technology projects that are usually associated with schools or instructional applications. For example, recently our purchasing department did not want to buy 80+ tablet laptops for a middle school. They believed that tablets were too expensive. I intervened and not only got the purchasing staff to relent but worked with the vendor to get special pricing. Another time, I took the lead on implementing a Web-based library management system throughout the district. The key point in each of these examples is that I left the "IT Center" and was directly involved in instructional technology.
As for me and my quandary, I feel better now that I've figured out what was bothering me about the presentations. There's nothing anachronistic about a CIO focusing on where the rubber meets the road: students and learning.
Philip J. Brody, Ph.D. is chief technology officer/assistant superintendent of Clark County School District in Las Vegas.
21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?
Editor's Pick
Learning for the 21st Century, a report from the public-private coalition known as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, articulates a vision of how schools can best prepare students to succeed in the first decades of the 21st century. Central to the report's recommendations is a call for schools to focus on six key elements of 21st century learning:
1. Core Subjects: The authors reaffirm the importance of the core subjects identified by No Child Left Behind but challenge schools and policymakers to expand their focus beyond "basic competency" to understanding the core academic content at much higher levels.
2. Learning Skills: "To cope with the demands of the 21st century," the report states, "students need to know more than core subjects. They need to know how to use their knowledge and skills-by thinking critically, applying knowledge to new situations, analyzing information, comprehending new ideas, communicating, collaborating, solving problems, and making decisions."
3. 21st Century Tools: Recognizing that "technology is, and will continue to be, a driving force in workplaces, communities, and personal lives in the 21st century," Learning for the 21st Century emphasizes the importance of incorporating information and communication technologies into education from the elementary grades up.
4. 21st Century Context: Experiences that are relevant to students' lives, connected with the world beyond the classroom, and based on authentic projects are central to the sort of education the Partnership for 21st Century Skills defines as the appropriate context for learning in the information age.
5. 21st Century Content: The report's authors believe that certain content essential for preparing students to live and work in a 21st century world is missing from many state and local standards.
6. New Assessments that Measure 21st Century Skills: "As pervasive as assessment seems to be today," the report says, "it remains an emerging and challenging field that demands further study and innovation." Recommendations include moving beyond standardized testing as the sole measure of student learning; balancing traditional tests with classroom assessments to measure the full range of students' skills; and using technology-based assessments to deliver immediate feedback.
Just as the CEO Forum on Education and Technology included a StaR (School Technology and Readiness) Chart in its 2001 report to aid schools in identifying their level of technology readiness and preparation, Learning for the 21st Century features a fold-out MILE (Milestones for Improving Learning and Education) Guide to help measure progress at preparing students to meet the challenges of the new millennium.
What's New Here?
Many of the themes explored in Learning for the 21st Century will be familiar to educators who have read the 1991 SCANS Report (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) or subsequent reports issued by the CEO Forum. Both groups outlined a variety of skills-including higher-order thinking, personal abilities, and technology literacy-essential for preparing students for a knowledge-based economy.
So what is new about the recommendations being made by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills? "To some degree, the recommendations are not all that new," says Chris Dede, professor of learning technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an education advisor to the partnership, "and that, in itself, is newsworthy. The fact that educators and business leaders keep returning to many of the same findings means we have a lot of confidence in them-that they're not part of a temporary fad."
Another partnership advisor, Paul Resta, director of the Learning Technology Center at the University of Texas at Austin, agrees that the consensus arrived at by the partnership is noteworthy-especially because of the large number of stakeholders from business, K-12 schools, higher education, and government who participated in its creation. In addition, he points out that it delves deeper into the how of delivering 21st century skills than its predecessors.
John Wilson, vice chair for the 21st Century Skills partnership and executive director of the National Education Association adds that, "While previous works have focused on technology, this goes beyond that to what we need to do to prepare students for a world that is vastly transformed by technology, making it necessary to constantly learn and adapt."
NCLB and 21st Century Skills: Contradictory or Complementary?
For some who attended the Learning for the 21st Century press conference, there was something incongruous about listening to John Bailey, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, endorse the report-including its suggestion that "standardized tests can measure only a few of the critical skills that we hope our students will learn." After all, for many educators today the government's No Child Left Behind program is synonymous with high-stakes testing and a narrowing vision of what constitutes achievement.
For example, social studies teacher and media coach Marco Torres laments the fact that his students, who create outstanding multimedia projects that demonstrate both knowledge and creativity, are forced to attend four-hour Saturday "drill-and-kill" sessions if they fail to pass a weekly test. "Many of my colleagues feel too overwhelmed to focus on teaching or learning. Louder, slower, and more repetitive seems to be the pedagogy of choice of low-income schools like mine," he says.
ISTE president Jan Van Dam concurs with the feeling that, "Many districts are so overwhelmed and concerned about the NCLB requirements and potential financial repercussions of not complying, that for lots of them the safest route is the 'back-to-basics' approach-focusing entirely on 20th century skills at the expense of 21st century ones."
But both Van Dam and Bailey believe that it does not have to be this way. "It's not an either/or choice," says Bailey. "We can teach higher-order thinking skills and have students using 21st century tools at the same time that they master core content areas." He points out that NCLB does not mandate that measures of average yearly performance be based solely on tests of lower-order thinking skills and that many of the 21st century skills outlined in the partnership's report are already part of state standards.
"I wholeheartedly agree that there is no need for an either/or approach," adds Van Dam. "There needs to be less fear and more creativity applied to the methods used to meet the needs of NCLB."
Basic Skills Revisited
One of the key points of Learning for the 21st Century, according to John Wilson, is that we are defining essential skills too narrowly. "As our nation focuses on the basics, it is noteworthy that government, educators, and private industry are unified in underlining that 21st century skills must be part of today's basics," he says.
The report states, "Literacy in the 21st century means more than basic reading, writing, and computing skills. As writer Alvin Toffler points out, 'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.'"
Learning for the 21st Century reminds readers that NCLB defines core subjects to include the arts, civics, and a number of other subjects often overlooked in back-to-basics curricula and that many states and districts already incorporate a wide range of learning skills into their standards. Now, the report says, it is time to "emphasize them strategically and comprehensively" - and to add some more key skills to the list.
Technology's Role Today
Although the authors are careful to point out that there are plenty of learning skills that have nothing to do with technology, they describe 21st century tools - including computers, telecommunications, and audio- or video-based media - as critical enablers of learning in a number of realms. And the fact that the information age that has resulted from the widespread adoption of such tools places us "in a world of almost unlimited streams of trivial and profound information, of enormous opportunity and difficult choices," necessitates an emphasis on information and communication technology literacy skills that will allow students to make sense of it all.
While many education, business, and government leaders concur with the importance of technology as a tool for 21st century teaching and learning, this realization contrasts sharply with what is happening in a number of states and districts as they scramble to respond to budget cuts and accountability pressures. "Unfortunately," says Margaret Honey, vice president and director of EDC's Center for Children and Technology, "in the schools that have the most pressure on them to improve test scores, technology often takes a back seat, along with the arts or anything that is seen as peripheral."
"I think everyone recognizes the importance of technology," agrees Ginger Jewell, coordinator of educational technology for the Clarke County School District in Georgia, "but it sometimes comes down to Solomon-like decisions. We've lost the technology money that was generated by the lottery and that is a tremendous blow. We also had to scale back the regular budget to accommodate unfunded NCLB mandates." Nevertheless, she says, her district continues to support its technology program with help from a local sales tax. "I actually think we're experiencing better use as teachers see the technology as a tool to accomplish academic goals rather than an add-on to an already busy day."
Having Faith in 21st Century Teaching
The authors of Learning for the 21st Century are clear that an emphasis on learning skills, 21st century tools, global awareness, and other elements of 21st century curriculum can - and should - coexist with core content. "Both [basic and 21st century skills] are essential," they write, "and, when taught concurrently, one reinforces the other."
According to Chris Dede, "In their focus on achievement lots of people are going back to behaviorist ideas from the first half of the 20th century, which said that basics must come first, and only when you know all the basic concepts and skills can you move on to learn about more complex interrelationships. Unfortunately, many kids get bored or burned out long before they get there. The drill kills their natural curiosity and they stop even trying."
"There is plenty of evidence," he continues, "that it is possible to learn the simple things in the process of addressing a complicated problem. Given interesting but complex challenges and projects, students are often motivated to learn the basic computation skills or simple facts that they need to master the problem."
The value of rich, multidisciplinary, technology-infused learning seems so obvious to educators who have seen its impact on young people that it is often frustrating to be asked to prove it using tests. Eeva Reeder, educational consultant and project-based learning specialist, speaks for many of her colleagues when she says, "A massive amount of research has made it clear how people learn and don't learn. The fact that it is still being debated is baffling. We need to use our common sense and pay attention. All human beings learn by doing, analyzing, talking, processing, and problem-solving. Talking at kids never has been and never will be an effective way to help them learn."
At the same time, there is good news for those who are resigned to the idea that test scores will continue to take center stage, at least for the near future. According to a number of researchers, rich 21st century learning experiences commonly do translate into higher test scores. Paul Resta describes two projects he worked on with secondary schools in Texas. Both focused on cooperative learning and knowledge construction in the context of English and social science instruction. "The teachers and administrators were very nervous about the nontraditional nature of the activities and how they would affect test scores. In the end, the students involved in these two projects all scored as well as their peers on some of the tests and significantly better on others."
It is interesting to note that these sorts of gains are true in spite of the fact that allowing students to solve real-world problems, collaborate with others, and create presentations to demonstrate their learning takes more time - time that might otherwise be used to speed through additional content material. Both Dede and fellow advisor Margaret Honey point to the importance of deep learning. "A broad overview is important," says Honey, "but stopping frequently to involve students in projects that allow them to go deep is equally important. We need a balanced approach."
Ironically, educators' worries about test scores might eventually be what it takes to make them broaden their teaching methods. "Let's be honest," says Michael Simkins, creative director for the California-based Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership, "we can get some initial gains on tests by teaching to the test and practicing test taking skills. Ultimately, though, we're going to hit an achievement wall. The irony here is that teachers are most likely to drill basic skills even harder in their effort to keep getting new achievement gains when, in fact, it may only be through engaging kids in higher-order thinking activities that they have any chance of breaking through those subsequent achievement barriers."
New Assessments and Measures of Progress
Regardless of the impact of 21st century learning on test scores, there is clearly a need for assessment tools that measure those essential skills that will never be captured by traditional tests. Even before Learning for the 21st Century challenged states and districts to add new skills to their lists of essentials, many of the standards on the list were being played down or ignored simply because they weren't easy to measure. Or, as the report reminds us, "What gets measured gets taught... We must measure what we value - or it won't be taught."
While the urgency is evident, the mandate for what must follow is a little fuzzier. Twenty-first century project and portfolio assessments are great classroom-level tools for monitoring the progress of individual students but, as the report mentions, "These assessments typically are not valid or reliable for broad comparisons across classrooms or schools." Other new approaches, such as computer-delivered tests, are helping with scoring and rapid feedback to schools - an essential element if we are to use the results to help students - but do not dramatically broaden the sorts of things that are being tested.
Whether second-generation assessment tools can bridge the gap - allowing the entire nation to focus on what's important, not just what can be tested easily - is a big question. John Wilson, for one, is optimistic that "technology will help us find ways to more effectively utilize assessment both for identifying overall achievement patterns as well as for helping individual students learn. Devising these much-needed quality assessments must be a priority of our policymakers."
In the meantime, the report places surprisingly little emphasis on other measures of progress that so many educators point to as compelling evidence that their 21st century teaching is paying off. While NCLB legislation permits states to use a variety of measures for measuring annual yearly progress, factors such as student attendance, college acceptances, or student and parent satisfaction, are receiving far less publicity than test scores.
And yet those are the factors that administrators at New York's widely respected Urban Academy tout when they talk about the measures of success that matter to them and their school community. "Why is Urban Academy so successful?" they ask at their Web site - and then go on to explain that 97 percent of their graduates enter four-year universities, they have virtually no violence, theft, or teacher turnover, and their attendance and dropout rates are far better than those seen in most other New York City schools.
And those are the factors Marco Torres takes pride in as he surveys his classroom. "My students just had a film festival last week that over 500 community folks attended. Within three days, the Web site had 22,000 hits," he says. "Here, in one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles County, I have kids who have self-esteem, who are going to college, who are being recruited to help make companies and institutions more effective, who are being treated like queens and kings by our elected officials and being recognized in front of L.A. City Council for their commitment to giving our community a voice. Come to my class when the bell rings and see how many kids get up to go home. They want to be there, they want to finish their projects, they want to learn more." If that's not achievement, what is?
By Judy Salpeter.
This article first appeared in Technology & Learning.
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