EdTechTrek

This morning in the news there was a story of a restaurant who took the route of publicly shaming those who never showed up for their reservations on Twitter. Here are a few of the tweets that were sent. The rationale was that smaller restaurants are losing critical business when those who make reservations and tie up tables never show up and don’t have the common courtesy to call and cancel their reservations. From a business perspective, this has to be frustrating. As a customer, I have to say that I have never really thought about this from the owner’s perspective. It was a good reminder to show such courtesy when plans change.

Image Credit: Simone Lovati, Flickr

However, they went a step further and publicly shamed those who neglected to cancel their reservations using social media – Twitter. I’m not so sure that this is a wise move from a business perspective. For one, if that was to happen to me, I would likely never frequent that restaurant again. But, I think there is another layer here worth thinking about. How do we use our voice, especially when we have the power of public audience? Does this type of action end up putting the restaurant owner in a negative light? Will other customers consider not frequenting the establishment due to such action? Did the restaurant owner miss a golden opportunity to go positive rather than negative, commending those who do cancel their reservations, thanking their customers for their business, sharing the great things that they are offering and doing,…?

How are you using your voice? Are you thinking about the potential impact on your audience? Are you seizing the opportunity to lift others up, share great things that are going on around you, exhorting others to strive for excellence, to be innovative, to share opportunities? Or, are you using your voice and audience as a platform to gripe, to complain, to shame, to expose,…? I’m certainly not saying that there is no place to make known the ugly, the deceitful, the evil, the double-speak… there certainly is. However, for those whose voice also represents their brand, is there a balance here that needs to be considered? For certain, there is a difference between raising issues and public shaming.

Image Credit: TruthOut.org, Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthout/4746140257/

It made me think about how test scores and educator evaluations are being used as well. When we publish those scores publicly and use them in ways that they were not designed to be used, when we rank and sort based upon flawed metrics, when we put undue pressure on teachers, principals, and even students to perform or else be shamed – and yes, even shamed publicly, do we achieve something completely unintended, something not so desirable? (see here, here, and here.)

So, how should schools, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and others be using their voice? What are the unintended consequences of negativity and shaming?

Below is a short Twitter exchange that I had with a few people on this event.



Scott McLeod‘s post from a year ago, titled Struggling with educators’ lack of technology fluency came back to life for me when a new comment was left today (the beauty of comment subscription/notification). In it, he laments the lack of technology literacy often found in educators, even at the most basic of levels.

Today, Patricia commented:

Yes…and yes.

As a young teacher, I can feel your frustration.

And I think I have an answer to, “Why are so many teachers technologically inept?”

Three words: lack. of. training.

I just graduated from teacher’s college. Was I trained to use a SMARTboard? No. Was I introduced to kidblogs? No. Was I shown how to use ipads in the classroom? Again, no.

I learned all these things on my own, like many of the earlier commenters. I went to my practicum school early every day to tinker with technology.

In short…

We teachers are left alone to learn technology, like inmates set adrift on the raging sea on our way to a uninhabited island.

Why?

This is indeed a serious problem – and likely an all-too-common one in schools of education. Of course, today we live in a highly digital and globally connected landscape that lets just about anyone learn just about anything, as “ml” shares in the comment that precedes Patricia’s. So, what are some of the key variables that differentiate “ml” and Patricia from others? Lack of interest? Lack of passion? Lack of curiosity? Lack of even the most basic skills to understand the potential of the Internet for exploring, connecting and learning?

For students in schools of education who are not learning how to leverage new tools and new learning spaces… for learning, can they any longer just raise their hands in despair or do they now have some responsibility for learning this along the way? For sure, their programs in some cases are failing them in this regard. On paper, they are able to show that they are “integrating technology” across all programs and content areas, but from experience I know that this is often a sham. It’s just not happening. Other schools of education may offer a single technology course for all educators, packing far too much into a single semester and being forced to look at technology rather generally rather than specific to individual areas of specialization. In addition, their notion of “technology integration” is using Moodle or Blackboard. The reality is that for many instructors and professors of education, they too have not been paying attention to how the interplay between culture and learning has been shifting. They often see their specialty as it existed years ago. Their bag of tricks hasn’t grown much in the last decade or two. They are not active in this highly digital and global learning landscape at all. So, yes – they are ill-equipped to help their “Patricias” – the next generation of teachers.

In as much as this can no longer be an excuse for new teachers and experienced teachers alike, it can no longer be an excuse, it can no longer be acceptable – for those charged with preparing teachers today. In K-12, many would say that this is in part a leadership issue – that administrators need to both model and facilitate such growth in their staff. The same can be said in higher education. When deans and department chairs are as technologically illiterate as the rest, leadership in this area falters.

I feel bad for all of the “Patricias” out there. I teach many of them in a single education technology dedicated course. They need more. They need rich technology-infused experiences in the context of their content area courses. All of them. Some will be like “ml” and Patricia who take the bull by the horns and leverage the great potential of the connected web to fill in

the gaps and learn what they need. Others simply continue on cruise control, recognizing that they need more, yet seem unwilling and/or unable to do much about it. They themselves still have the old mindset that “if someone doesn’t teach me, I can’t learn it”. I think these two types of in-service teachers exist in schools today as well.

If you ask me, higher [teacher] education is still not being disrupted enough.

“Young people are desperate for learning that is relevant and part of the fabric of their social lives, where they are making choices about how, when, and what to learn, without it all being mapped for them in advance. Learning on the Internet is about posting a burning question on a forum like Quora or Stack Exchange, searching for a how to video on YouTube or Vimeo, or browsing a site like Instructables, Skillshare, and Mentormob for a new project to pick up…” – Mimi Ito

Credit: AJU_photography, Flickr

My son wanted to learn guitar, so we helped by buying one for him. Being a guitar player of sorts, I showed him the basics of how to told it and a few chords to get him started. That was all. His primary teacher for the next year was YouTube and some related guitar playing websites. His parter and audience was his cousin hundreds of miles away… over Skype. Here’s how to get started.

My son wanted a dart blow gun. Being the good parents that we are, we refused to buy one for him. We could envision the dog, the neighbor’s kids, nesting birds… all with darts sticking out of them. So, he turned to the Internet and YouTube for help. He asked us to take him to the hardware store for PVC pipe, valves, and glue. He made one. Of course, he forgot to buy electrical tape, so he used mine [still frowning as I write this.] He needed darts, so with our supply of bamboo skewers and paper cones fashioned at the ends to assist with air propulsion, he made those, too. His idea came from some video on YouTube. Here’s how to make one.

This led to building bigger, better, more powerful devices that launched paint balls. Why? His wise parents refused to buy him a paintball gun. So, he made his own. Some Internet research. More YouTube videos. Making a list of parts. Another trip to the hardware store for more PVC pipe and valves. A car tire valve. Some trial and error. Viola. A paintball device pressurized with a bicycle pump. A small flashlight and laser added to provide the appearance of accuracy were added at the end. Here’s how to do it.

Image Credit: Anthony Georgeff, Flickr

My son wanted a ukelele. By this point, being quite skilled and self-taught at playing the guitar, wise parents that we were, we bought him one for his birthday. He went straight to the computer to find a virtual tuner and chord chart. He found some amazing ukelele players. One more new thing learned. Here’s how to do it.

My son wanted a video camera stabilizer, since he is now into digital photography after watching me have so much fun with it. He found that they were quite expensive and wisely realized that his parents were not going to fork out the money for that little accessory. So,… well, by this point you can guess what happened. That’s right. A little trip to the Internet followed by a trip to the hardware store for more PVC piping, spray paint, electrical tape, a bolt that fits the threads of a standard camera tripod mount, and some hot water pipe insulation for added cushiness and a look of cool. Problem solved – well, not quite. He noticed after using it that he needed better lighting, but the attached flashlight didn’t diffuse the light enough. So, once again, back to the Internet learning about ways to diffuse light. Here’s how to build one.

Image Credit: Paul Mayne, Flickr

My son’s latest endeavor was in the area of video editing. He has been slowly getting frustrated with the creative limitations that iMovie provided and wanted to give Final Cut Pro a try. Without my suggestion, he downloaded the trial version. As I stood over his shoulder thinking, this is going to take some learning, he dove in. A few trips to YouTube and a fearless abandon, he quickly figured out the basics, roped his brother in to do some acting in front of our basement green screen, found some downloadable keyed flame effects, and has his brother being Anakin Skywalker, launching flames out of his hands at Yoda. Here’s how to use Final Cut Pro.

What is going on here? I’m not simply trying to brag about my son. There’s something much more important to unpack here.

This recent piece by Mimi Ito, What Teens Get About the Internet That Parents Don’t, gets to the heart of a shift that has taken place where learning is concerned… a shift that many teachers/educators are still uncomfortable with. Read it. As a teacher of preservice teachers, my own students often tell me that they are uncomfortable with using new learning technologies until they themselves feel competent with them. Today, this is largely unnecessary. In addition, most teachers just don’t stand a chance at EVER becoming expert enough in all of the new learning tools out there today… and tomorrow. But, I’ll leave that for another post.

What I find interesting is that when it comes to “school learning”, my son is less inclined to turn to the Internet for help or support. With some reluctance, he’ll try Khan Academy or a quick search to find the answer to something, but he’s much more likely to ask me or my wife for answers if he can’t quickly find what he needs. After all, that’s what school is about, right? Answers? He’s really not all that interested in the learning, as there is very little that draws him in and there are few opportunities that allow him to tap into his passion and creativity, leveraging new ways of creating personal and relevant artifacts that demonstrate learning. The idea of self-directed learning (and the persistence, trial and error, the tinkering that goes along with it) that he knows and loves so well doesn’t seem to mesh with school very much.

Image Credit: Steve Gray, Flickr

As long as “school” remains about answers and performance on standardized tasks, we’ll continue to produce students who are just looking for the quickest ways to produce the answers that we are looking for. We won’t be inspiring learners who know how to solve problems, allow their passions and creativity to drive learning, and perhaps worst of all, we’ll continue to limit them in terms of how they see themselves as learners and how they see the world.

Do we really want, as Mim Ito depicts, “an arms race in achievement”?… Because, that’s what we’ve created.

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“For this week’s activity, read Seymour Papert’s essay on the “Gears of My Childhood” and write about an object from your childhood that interested and influenced you. Share your story in the group.” – Learning Creative Learning Mooc, Session 2

When I think back to my childhood, I must admit that memories from my earliest years are sketchy at best. Seymour recalled the influence of gears on his development of models from as early as to years of age. I can’t do anything remotely similar.

Image Credit: Ianus Keller, Flickr

However, I do recall the influence of Lego on my development. I spent hours building, 

tinkering, creating. I remember craving more pieces and new pieces that would allow me to create what I was imagining in my mind. Sadly, my parents missed this and didn’t work to develop the materials that I needed… that I craved. This is likely due to the fact that they spent no time with me in pursuing my interests here. They just didn’t understand. They missed it. Let me just say that I’ve remedied that oversight with my own children who have both developed an incredible tinkerer/maker mindset and ability. It some sense, it validates for me the importance of making “making” available to children and spending time immersed in the activity of making – in whatever form it might be.