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Nancy Flanagan
Howell, MI
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Nancy signed the petition | -
Nancy signed the petition | -
Nancy commented on the article |@Carl-- have been on vacation. Thanks for your long and thoughtful response. You don't know me--but if you did, you would understand that the message was a very well-constructed sermon aimed at the choir. I teach on-line, I construct on-line learning experiences and curriculum, I lead virtual communities. I understand, appreciate and utilize the tools and platforms you're endorsing here, and for the same reasons.
And--most important--I am neither fearful nor ambivalent. In fact, when techies suggest that teachers are in any way responsible for lagging behind the curve in introducing their students to new and thrilling virtual learning experiences, my blood boils. I'd like to suggest that (paraphrasing Neil Postman here) those who cultivate competence in the use of a new technology become an elite group that are granted undeserved authority and prestige by those who have no such competence. The benefits and deficits of new technolgies are not equally distributed, much as we would like to think that they are. There are gains and there are losses.
None of that makes me a naysayer or Luddite. I see very little critique of new technologies in schools, in fact--most schools are dying to get more tech "stuff." It's the one thing that goes through in extremely tight budget times. It's the valuing of novelty and things, and the willingness to let invention drive the train, rather than carefully considered human values. The study in question (oh yeah--there was a study--laughing) focused on older students, not first graders, or even middle schoolers. Some of the most technologically advanced and innovative nations leave tech tools out of the equation for younger students--and I think that may be wise.
My on-line classes are with college students, and all of the things you write apply to them in spades. But I started my career teaching elementary school music, a class that cannot be taught on-line. I recently had a huge, public (friendly) argument with another teacher about the need (or lack thereof) for performing organizations--drama, choral, jazz, orchestra, etc. He contended that the vast wealth of technological options for creating music and drama negated the need for kids to sing together, play together, put on plays, etc. It can all be done so much faster and more accurately electronically--why would we spend money for kids to learn to play the bassoon, or try out for a role as Atticus Finch when they could mimic the sound or watch Gregory Peck? I found the argument heartbreaking. I don't see the supplements as more effective. I see them as loss of community and just another reason to metaphorically bowl alone.
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Nancy commented on the article |
@Carl.
Hmmm. You do realize that you just opened a dumpster full of worms, right? The American "philosophy of education" question-- what is the purpose and mission of what we rhetorically call our democratic system of a free public education for every child?
Here's what I think: I believe it is possible for a nation/state to create a high-quality, no-cost education for every child, with great outcomes. I think so, because I've studied educational systems in other countries, where they do a vastly better job than we do in America, largely by investing in human growth and change over time, making a fully educated, economically contributing populace their #1 priority.
We have done no such thing in the United States. In fact, we've let the gap between the highly educated (and well-off) and the poorly educated (and dependent) segments grow dangerously large. There are a couple of ways to look at that: either we accept that, justifying our system as being based on merit and individual effort (a kind of libertarian perspective) or we make attempts to address the gap, by expanding services to include things like learning to cooperate or other personal competencies.
Whether you think that's the role of schools or the role of families, the fact is--we all have to live with the economic and societal results of such an unbalanced system. I have been a teacher for 31 years. I have never found it possible to be instructionally effective without building classroom community first, or teaching each group how to work together as learners. I've taught HS and MS, where content is the focus, too--I'm not talking about sharing toys and taking turns.
I realize that my view is not universally shared. And I do understand the necessity, advantages and even joy in working together in asynchronous, non-f2f collaboration. I just want to think about the consequences of the change.
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Nancy commented on the article |
@Carl-- Your points are well-taken. Learning to work together on-line--both synchronously and asynchronously-- is a definitely an essential 21st century skill, one that most K-12 schools and universities are not terribly interested in, at the moment. I e-mentor novice teachers. While they are nearly always very comfortable with the *idea* of networking and the platform tools, they have trouble developing substantive dialogue, inter-group trust, application of coursework knowledge to real-life teaching. They "know" things, but they don't know how to truly work together on-line.
I was referring to the supposition (from the article) that on-line learning yielded better results because of the novelty and students' ability to concentrate because they were alone. That's different. If we're saying that kids learn more when they're not around other people, I'm doubtful about the researchers' overall definition of "learning."
Other commenters have also mentioned the age issue. Most of what we're reading in Policy World, these days, pushing disruptive technologies as the way we're going to either fix or save public schooling, begin with examples using children who are literate and can reason. For them, SMS, message boards and wikis--etc.-- are useful tools to construct knowledge. There is, however, a critical, foundational layer of learning which includes f2f relationships with other humans. Like learning how to deal with intellectual conflict when you can't walk away from the computer. Or who is/is not trustworthy. Or why (now how) to read.
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Nancy commented on the article |
Change.org readers are likely to support any thoughtful movement toward creative use of 21st century learning tools in re-shaping education. But pushing schools and untrained teachers to stockpile a cadge of on-line lessons to use when the swine flu epidemic hits is not an example of innovation-- it's an example of using a naturally occuring crisis to make a political point.
Other commenters have correctly identified some of the problems with this research. Here's another: if the reason for the uptick in student achievement is simple novelty, that factor will quickly wear off, when on-line learning becomes the norm. There's also well-documented evidence that employers prefer people who well work in teams--isn't collaboration one of our 21st century goals? What does it mean when students learn better alone?
I'm all for rapid transitions to better learning through technology. But let's go into it deliberatively, rather than suggesting that the wolf (or swine) is at the door.
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Nancy commented on the article |Well, thanks for this post. I have had the same experience-- a tiny bubble of hope that we might not be in for the Same Old model of education "reform" with this administration. And wonder of wonders, even Marc Tucker was talking about the (excuse me) crappy nature of our current standardized bubble-in tests, in the Washington Post on Sunday, suggesting that we can develop rich, worthwhile assessments that can drive some rich, worthwhile instruction which presumably would involve application, synthesis, collaboration, and student creation of new products and ideas.
My personal Arne Hope Moment came in April, when I saw him speak to the 50 state Teachers of the Year. I hate it when people shamelessly link to their own blogs (that's not why I read Change.Org), but here's what happened to make me think that the ship may be slowly moving in a different direction:
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2009/05/arne-duncan-and-social-justice.html
I have dark, paranoid thoughts about #1 (to a man with a computer, every problem looks like a need for more data), but am feeling slightly more sanguine about #2. Looking forward to hearing about #3 and #4. -
Nancy signed the petition | -
Nancy commented on the article |Oh, yes. Cannot wait to get my hands on this book. The ultimate in culturally responsive pedagogy. In my doctoral program in Ed Policy, it's fascinating to sit with Chinese and Korean students (and there are a boatload of them at Big Midwestern University) and watch/comment on videos of teachers teaching--or work collaboratively on papers and presentations. Truth and the eye of the beholder and all that.
Reminds me of a conversation I had with my son, who was born in Korea, and adopted as an infant. In one of the recent pieces (New Yorker, I think) on IQ, there was a rank-ordered chart, highest to lowest, of IQ test data from various nations (plus plenty of explication and cautions, of course). South Koreans topped the list.
I mentioned this to Alex, who is 20 and whose normal demeanor is "yawn" (something I attribute to his innate character and membership in the ironic young adult category, rather than Korean biological heritage). Silence. Finally, he said: "Cool. I guess." And then he said "I don't suppose that applies to me since American schools have probably ruined me." -
Nancy commented on the article |
Stephen King claims Shirley Jackson was one of his first and most indelible inspirations...
Annie Dillard? Yes. And Ian McEwan? Yes, also. I sometimes think McEwan writes like a woman (in a nice way, of course). "Amsterdam," for example. Lucious.
Now, about Joni Mitchell, and song lyrics in general--as a music teacher, I spend huge amounts of instructional time thinking about lyrics (and considering the vast reserves of poetry that students have effortlessly memorized, simply because someone was singing the poem). And Joni Mitchell is certainly in the pantheon of modern music poets. "Night Ride Home," for example--a perfect poem for sending students off for the hot summer. Or the contrasting the Yeats original and "Slouching Toward Bethlehem."
Clay, too bad your "7 music things" meme ended after Mitchell, Mahler and Cave. That's three.
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