Bob Wise: Don't Make a Technology Purchase Until You Make a Plan

In his monthly column in the Huffington Post, Alliance president Bob Wise talks today about the importance of district leaders forming a strategic plan for digital learning and technology implementation. He talks in-depth about the Alliance's Project 24 initiative - a set of resources and tools, along with a framework, to aid districrt and school leaders in creating a digital learning environment. He notes that technology is a powerful way to increase access and opportunity for all students everywhere, but it must be complemented by excellent teaching. Teachers, he says, become educational designers in a digital learning environment. 

"Technology provides students with access to both online and traditional classroom opportunities that leverage data systems and interactive software -- that may not normally be available -- to engage and support students. With comprehensive planning and teacher support, technology can be an equalizer by providing the same educational opportunities to low-income students and students of color as it does to more affluent students. Technology can also be used to tailor learning based on each student's needs.

Effective digital learning provides technological tools that allow teachers to be designers of each student's individual pathway for achieving success. Technology enhances the teacher's role in the classroom by opening up new opportunities for instructional strategies and digital content and resources. Additionally, online professional development opportunities can connect teachers with mentors and expert colleagues worldwide, which enables real-time collaboration on lesson plans and best practices."

Learn more about Project 24, and how digital learning can improve student outcomes Wise's column: Technology in Education: Before You Make a Purchase, Make a Plan.

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Afternoon Announcements: Paying for Lunch with a Fingerprint

The federal government can make changes to the way that money is given to public school to improve equity, some civil rights leaders and education advocates argue. One suggestion is to amend the Race to the Top competition so that it rewards states in a way that would distribute money based on student need. Politics K-12

Blended learning has taken over some classes at San Jose State and other California State Universities. In  one dreaded engineering program, students now listen to lectures at home and work on assignments in class. Student achievement in the class has increased in the last year. Mercury News

Several dozen states are considering dropping the GED because prices for the pencil and paper test are too high. The states are exploring a more cost-effective alternative to the GED. Huffington Post

Students at Carnegie Mellon University can pay for their lunch by scanning their fingertips. The new technology connects the fingerprints with a debit card. PSFK Read Entire Post

Representative George Miller and Alliance President Bob Wise Agree: Students Need a 21st-Century Education

It's not every day that a member of Congress teams up with a non-profit organization to further a bipartisan goal, but that's what happened when Representative George Miller (D-CA) and Alliance President and former West Virginia governor Bob Wise co-wrote an editorial for Politico. Both Rep. Miller and Gov. Wise champion educational transformation, and they both believe in the power of digital technology to increase accessibility, opportunity, and achievement for all students, everywhere. 

Earlier this year, Rep. Miller introduced the "Transforming Education Through Technology Act," which would "update and modernize learning systems by supporting teachers and principals in the use of new technology to redesign curricula, incorporate technology into classrooms and provide assistance with real-time data and assessments," as the op-ed explains. If passed, this bill has the power to expand technology innovation that can transform teaching and learning, just as onlnie ordering has changed the way we eat.

At the same time, Gov. Wise has led the Alliance for Excellent Education's Project 24, a district-level initiative to connect school districts to planning and resource materials to aid them in the transition and implementation of digital technology. 

"Over the next 24 months, the Alliance will help school districts to implement a strategic plan for strengthening education outcomes through the use of technology at no cost," the joint op-ed reads. "The Alliance will help participating districts through a comprehensive planning process around seven interconnected areas where technology and digital learning can improve student achievement: teaching and professional learning, use of time, budget and resources, data systems and online assessments, curriculum and instruction, technology and infrastructure, and academic support and resources."

Rep. Miller and Gov. Wise share a common goal: to ensure that every student everywhere has the opportunity to learn. They share the vision that upgrading digital technology in schools around the nation can achieve that goal. 

"Families can order dinner with the click of a button on a smartphone or computer, but teachers are still wiping chalk off blackboards. Newspapers and magazines are delivered to tablets every morning, but students study from texts that become outdated as soon as they are released," Rep. Miller and Gov. Wise write. "No single solution exists for these problems, but an effective use of technology can be a tool to increasing access to educational opportunities for disadvantaged students and closing the achievement gap. It can also empower teachers to design an educational experience that extends beyond the four walls of the classroom."

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Afternoon announcements: BYOT movement gaining momentum

How does our hyper-technology laden culture affect babies’ early learning? A new feature explores the ‘touch-screen generation.’ The findings may surprise you. The Atlantic

Arne Duncan co-penned an editorial today calling for fines for collegiate athletic coaches whose students don’t graduate. He proposes that coaches be fined for not promoting a healthier sports-school balance. USA Today

The Bring Your Own Technology, or BYOT, movement continues to gain momentum as a growing number of schools allow and encourage students to bring technology into the classroom. Teachers utilize learning apps in the classroom to improve learning and meet each student where they are. New York Times

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel stood behind the city’s plan to close 54 public schools, saying that it’s not perfect, but it’s necessary. “IF we don’t make these changes, we haven’t lived up to our responsibility as adults to the children of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said. Huffington Post Read Entire Post

When Did Your Digital Footprint Begin?

The following guest blog post comes from Theresa Shafer . Theresa is Online Community Manager for the New Tech Network.  

During the past year I have had the pleasure of working with students across the country on the idea of crafting their digital footprints. I always begin the workshop asking students: 

“When did your digital footprint begin?”

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TEDtalks research shows technology has power to narrow achievement gaps between poor and affluent students

Sugata Mitra placed a computer in front of children who had never seen one. When he came back months later, they had learned to operate it, read the documents he stored on it on complicated subjects like DNA, and asked him questions to further their learning. Mitra's experiment showed that poor children anywhere are as capable of deeper learning competencies - like critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as their affluent peers.

I recently listened to Sugata Mitra’s prize-winning TEDtalk on building his tiny “Hole in the Wall," in which he tears down major structures of traditional educational thinking while laying the foundation for major advancements in student-centered learning. I came away from the talk excited about his conclusions concerning narrowing achievement gaps between poor and affluent students. In his experiments, technology proved to be the great equalizer.

My thoughts on Mitra’s work appear online in the Huffington Post. Here’s an excerpt:

The most important conclusion from Mitra's work is not about the technology -- more about that shortly -- but in firmly establishing that poor children can learn and develop deeper learning competencies of creative thinking, problem solving, and self-reflection and learning -- just like their more affluent peers.

Almost every survey shows an expectations gap between what students believe they can accomplish versus what the educators and communities believe is possible. The students bet high; the adults assume lower and that is where the level of learning ends up. For Mitra, there were no assumptions that were communicated to the students. He provided the computers as the access to learning, stepped back, and watched the children grow.

The more challenging lesson from the Hole in the Wall is that this learning would most likely not have occurred without technology. These children had successfully been ignored for centuries; why any difference for this generation? Besides providing access and the capacity to engage individual learning styles, the technology also provided an interesting style of engagement. Students wanted to use the computer; as they mastered this, they began broadening their search for knowledge. Does anyone believe the same learning results as well as enthusiasm would have occurred had Mitra had simply positioned himself in the Hole in the Wall and answered any questions of passing kids?

You can watch Mitra's talk and read my response on the Huffington Post: Opening Windows for Learners and Educators Worldwide. Read Entire Post

Digital Overload

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Intel Science Talent Search Offers Hope and Inspiration

On March 13, I attended the Intel Science Talent Search Awards Gala Program in Washington, DC honoring the forty high school finalists from across the nation. I've been to a lot of gala award banquets over the past decades; few have offered the hope and inspiration of this one.

The reception was in a large room where the sides were lined with the finalists standing beside a brief poster listing their entry. Every important topic seemed to be represented with an articulate student confidently explaining repeatedly what his or her project was about. Much of the science and technology future of our nation was on display.

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In State of the Union Address, Obama Stresses Education, Calls for Mandatory School Attendance Until Age 18

During his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama stressed the importance of education in driving the U.S. economy and called on states to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

"When students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma," Obama said. 

Although he did not directly mention a revamp of the No Child Left Behind Act, he did discuss more flexibility for states and changes to testing.

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Digital Learning Day……More about the Learning than the Digital

The following blog post comes from Cheryl Williams, the executive director of the Learning First Alliance, which is a core partner of Digital Learning Day. Learn more about Digital Learning Day at http://www.digitallearningday.org.

Quite by accident my career as a K-12 educator was steered to learning about and promoting the use of technology in the classroom, schools, and districts twenty-five years ago when I went to work in the Education Technology Program department at the National School Boards Association (NSBA). What I knew then, before I was very knowledgeable about technology, digital media, distance learning, telecommunications, E-rate, online professional development, open source, multi-media or any of the other subtopics and/or semantics used in the education technology arena, was that the most important thing in the formal education classroom was the skill of the teacher in relating to students, engaging their interest, and opening the world of intellectual curiosity and exploration.

As the executive director of the Learning First Alliance (LFA), a coalition of 16 national education organizations representing the professionals and community members whose work focuses on public schooling, I'm delighted to participate in Digital Learning Day, February 1, 2012, and publicly support on behalf of LFA members the examples of talented teachers and teaching using the tools of the 21st century to open the world of learning to the students they serve.

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