The Tempered Radical

Cell Phones ARE Disrupting the Learning Environment

I'm starting to realize that there's no single topic that brings out more passion in educators than trying to figure out just what to do with cell phones in schools.  I could post a thousand entries on teacher working conditions or merit pay and never receive a single comment, but when I make a suggestion that cell phones are teaching tools, I hear from what seems like a hundred readers!

  by  Michael (mx5tx) 

My recent post---suggesting that boring lessons might explain student tendencies to use their cell phones as a distraction in class-----was no different.   Parents, prinicipals and teachers all chimed in, either defending cell phones as valuable teaching tools or calling them unnecessary distractions.  

It was a great conversation that has pushed my thinking and has me mentally wrestling with a few of the common cell phone concerns that my readers shared.  

For today, I wanted to explore something that Steve wrote:

From an administrator's perspective: Students ofteen use phones to cheat on tests and take pictures of the test. Students can also text the answer to test questions to their peers. Students can use their cell phones to sell drugs and send threatening messages within the school. Students can play on the Internet, chat with friends and ignore the classroom teacher while playing video games on their phone....

Currently, cell phones are viewed as a Budweiser t-shirt, a bandana, a mini-skirt, and excessive talking. In other words, a cell phone is considered a 'disruption to the learning environment.' 

Evaluating "White-Space" Educators. . .

I was poking around the blog of my favorite arch-enemy Jay Greene---whose book Education Myths is one of the most offensive and inaccurate portrayals of life in the classroom ever to stumble out of a right-wing chop shop---the other day and came across this interesting bit by guest blogger Matthew Ladner.

In it, Ladner takes a sharp turn away from Greene's unwavering support of using student test scores as an indicator of teacher performance and as a criteria for performance pay programs by exploring the career contributions of professional basketball player Shane Battier---a guy who doesn't tear it up in the statistics column but who plays for champions year after year.

Ladner argues that Battier is a "white-space" employee----one of those people who get important things done, but goes overlooked because their contributions are difficult to measure.  When comparing Battier to teachers, he writes:

Is there an education angle here? Yes indeed. Battier is what business guys call a “white space” employee. The term refers to the space between boxes on an organizational chart. A white space employee is someone who does whatever it takes to achieve organizational goals and makes the organization work much better as a whole.

As we move into the era of value-added analysis for teacher merit pay, this article provides much food for thought. School leaders must consider carefully what they will reward, and give some consideration to how white space behavior is rewarded.

Rewards should not just be based on individual learning gains- reaching school wide goals should also be strongly rewarded. Otherwise my incentive as a math teacher will be to assign six hours of math homework a night- and to hell with everyone else (see Iverson, Allen).

These ideas are intriguing to me simply because they ring true.  The contributions that I make---both to the students in my classroom and to the faculty members in my building----stretch far beyond the results of the end of grade exams that I give each spring. 

Compulsive Sharing and the Public School Teacher

In a recent post over at the Fischbowl, Karl Fisch draws several interesting connections between the networked learning that technology is making possible today and the kinds of networked learning done by our founding fathers documented in Steven Johnson's book, The Invention of Air.  

  by  Robert S. Donovan (booleansplit) 

Turns out that a spirit of "compulsive sharing" surrounded the founding fathers, largely stimulated by the passion that Joesph Priestley---a 18th century scholar best known for the discovery of oxygen in its gaseous form---held for open thinking.

Fisch highlights this quote from The Invention of Air to highlight Priestley's attitudes towards openness:

The idea of proprietary secrets, of withholding information for personal gain, was unimaginable in that group...But Priestley was a compulsive sharer, and the emphasis on openness and general circulation is as consistent a theme as any in his work...No doubt Priestley saw farther because he stood on the shoulders of giants, but he had another crucial asset:  he had a reliable postal service that let him share his ideas with giants.

Fisch then goes on to ask an interesting question with huge implications for education: 

I wonder how many of our schools---and the educational processes we have in place---really encourage compulsive sharing, either in-person or virtually?

Great question, huh?  

The Impact of Market Norms on Education. . .

I've been plugging through Barack Obama's recent remarks on education and finding tons of tidbits that are interesting times ten.  

To start with, it's great to hear our president talking about rewarding teachers differently and about the importance of 21st Century skills.  Both are reforms that I believe in and write about all the time (see here and here).

But I'm bothered by one section of his speech.  He wrote:

From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom...

America’s future depends on its teachers. And so today, I am calling on a new generation of Americans to step forward and serve our country in our classrooms. If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make the most of your talents and dedication; if you want to make your mark with a legacy that will endure – join the teaching profession.

America needs you. We need you in our suburbs. We need you in our small towns. We need you in our inner cities. We need you in classrooms all across our country.

  by  transplanted mountaineer 

That's just plain beautiful, isn't it?  It's not unlike the high-minded rhetoric that dozens of presidents have pulled out of the ol' uh-oh toolkit during times of domestic trouble.  

But who can blame 'em!  Tapping into American pride never hurts when your trying to tackle social challlenges.  We're a nation of believers and when we feel like we're losing ground to anyone, we're generally willing to bear more weight in order to get 'er done. 

(Mental note:  We really should thank the Puritans for that.) 

There's one problem, though:  Education has gone through a painful transition in the past two decades, from a profession driven by social norms to one driven by market norms.  

It's a Pedagogical Problem. . .

I've got this wicked mashup blog post brewing in my mind right now that has been burbling ever since I stumbled across a conversation that Scott McLeod started over on his blog after sharing this slide with his readers:

(click to see larger image)

While reading through the comments, I was relatively blown away by the number of readers who were like a thousand-percent opposed to the idea that cell phones could be used as an instructional tool. 

Some were concerned about the potential for students to take inappropriate pictures of peers without their knowledge, but most were just plain peeved because students were spending more time texting friends in class than paying attention to the teacher. 

Barry probably expressed these concerns best when he wrote:

Scott- I know what you are trying to say with the slide and in theory, I agree agree with you. The practical reality of high school (and even grad school) is that most student use their cell phones to text their friends or to make phone calls. From anecdotal observation, I see very few kids using phones for academic research, academic photography, or academic messaging for collaboration on a topic...

Adults and students alike becoming to the point of rude where they refuse to engage with a teacher or instructor because they are too focused on their handheld....the list goes on.

I may be naive, but aren't distracted students texting from the back of the classroom pretty convincing evidence of poor teaching? 

Advice to a Novice Blogger. . .

A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to have a bit titled Learning with Blogs and Wikis published in ASCD's Educational Leadership.  Obviously, having your work spotlighted by one of the leading educational journals in the nation is a satisfying feeling. 

Another satisfaction that I get each time something I write is picked up by a journal is answering questions and offering advice to readers.  Inevitably, three or four people email me after each piece looking for a bit more information, advice on how to best move forward, or the friendly kick-in-the-pants they need to take long-delayed first steps.

That happened today when a reader in Iowa emailed and asked about the professional risks of blogging. 

She wrote:

Hi Mr. Ferriter- 

Your article in Ed Leadership has motivated me to delve further into blogs and wikis. I like to read blogs, and I have always been tempted to try writing my own blog but have held back due to concerns about attaching my name to my opinions about teaching and learning.

It’s not that my views are extreme- I’m just wondering what the ramifications could be for my school (or for me) since my name is also attached to my school.  Would a parent who disagrees with me think differently about my school because of my opinions? Will my school district feel betrayed if I comment on something in our current professional learning with which I disagree?

This is a question that a lot of novice bloggers wrestle with---and for good reason!  Teachers are often in positions where they have little organizational power, yet they're asked to carry out decisions that they may not agree with.  Questioning can quickly land one in a bit 'o hot water known as "insubordination," and doing THAT publically is a ticket to the unemployment line. 

When addressing these concerns with novice bloggers, I always begin by emphasizing that each individual needs to seek out their own comfort zone before making any decisions about how to move forward.  "Comfort" in this case is a completely subjective term based on a person's personality, their position in life, and the work environment that they currently find themselves in. 

Ensuring Mediocrity While Preventing Disaster. . .

I gotta tell ya, Mike's recent comments about teachers and students connecting in digital forums for learning beyond school hours have still got me riled up.  

Not only did he suggest that any teacher who uses digital tools to communicate with students is likely to wind up "on the news" for inappropriate behavior----which makes offensive generalizations about the intentions of the majority of teachers based on the actions of a reprehensible few---but he also adamantly insisted that communication between teachers and students outside the confines of schools should "never, ever" happen.  

  by  psd 

He wrote:

"To that end, teachers should never, ever contact students outside the boundaries of their legitimate and narrow duties. Teachers do not contact students outside the classroom. To do otherwise is to open them to charges of inappropriate interest or influence. That such contact is through texting, the internet or any other trendy method changes the reality of such contact not at all."

So I did a bit of digging around this morning to see whether or not I'm crazy to suggest that digital forums might just have potential for improving the teaching-learning transaction in schools.  Interestingly enough, the first post in my feed reader was this Dean Shareski bit about underinformed efforts of districts attempting to control teacher and student access to social networking tools.