Teach42

It’s NECC time baby! I’m sitting down to my first session, and unfortunately I’m slightly frustrated already. It’s being held in one of the ballrooms in the Mariott, next door to the convention center. Unfortunately, I guess that means there’s no wifi here! Bah. So once again, I’m typing in Word and then will be transferring this to the blog.

I’m at the a session titled “What Is the Role of Technology in Education Today…. And Tomorrow?” hosted by L. Michael Golden and Paul Vallas, CEO of the school district of Philadelphia.

Bah, this is not a great start. I was planning to record the session and forgot to hit start when he began speaking. Missed the first few minutes already. Major disappointment, but one must move on, right?

A few quick offhand impressions about NECC so far. It could just be me, but the conference seems larger than usual. Maybe it’s just more spread out, or perhaps I’ve just forgotten just how big it really is, but there’s a ton of sessions being offered, and there seems to be booths, rooms, and exhibits spread out everywhere. It really is a great conference, If you aren’t here, you should try to be there next year. San Diego, July 4-7. Put it on your calendar now.

Paul Vallas has just started presenting and gets to the point very quickly. “Anything that doesn’t come back to instruction isn’t worth doing.” Underachieving school districts that establish comprehensive management programs generally end up improving. You have to adopt a series of curriculum models in all the core subject areas and align them to standards. You also have to do the same with honors programs, and remedial programs.

Another key component is intensive professional development. One thing Paul did was dismiss school at noon twice per month for the purpose of professional development. He also instituted coaches throughout the school for the teachers (what does this mean?). He also increased the instructional time on task. Struggling schools get extra instructional time after school, and if necessary they get an 11th month of school during the summer. Total of 200 extra school hours possible.

They made it clear from the beginning that they were sort of winging this and that they didn’t have a Powerpoint. They need it. He’s rattling off his program and I’m frantically try8ing to keep up. To make matters worse, he talks fast. Real fast. I can see he’s excited, that’s good. However, I want to be able to soak this in and he’s moving way too quickly.

Talking about how they have out of date schools and classrooms. He’s saying that they can modernize every single classroom in Philly for the cost of building two new high schools. Lighting, windows, modern furniture, individual learning cubicles or group workstations, whiteboards with projectors at the primary grade levels, smart boards tapped into McGraw Hill, laptops in high school, and more. Basically saying while he can’t change the buildings that the schools are in, he can change the classrooms to make them up to date. 80-90% of the day will be spent in environments that are equal to or superior to high end suburban classrooms.

I’m thrilled that he’s so excited, and this really does sound amazing. It also sounds like throwing money at a problem. “Smartboards and whiteboards have unlimited ability to enhance student learning.” What? Huh? He had me then he lost me. “Managed instruction plus technology equals instructional enhancements.”

What is the plan to describe what to do with the Smartboard? Not how to use it, but what to do with it? Haven’t we seen enough technology being airdropped in to schools? Hasn’t there been enough research showing that putting technology in classrooms without proper training really makes very little difference to student learning.

When I hear about schools/districts bragging about how much technology they’re throwing around, I always wonder just how those teachers feel about it and what they’re going to be using it all for. There are many classrooms around the country where the computer serves as a wonderful shelf for potted plants and little more. Just because you have a computer doesn’t mean you know how to use it.

People are shooting holes in his plan now. Someone is pointing out that a big assumption is that teachers are tech savvy and will know what to do with it. Paul’s response is that if you provide enough training then it won’t be a problem. He just said that when they buy laptops, $100 is set aside in the cost for professional development. Doesn’t really sound like much to me.

Now he’s saying that if you don’t want to use a Smartboard, you can just use it as a whiteboard, you just won’t get chalk on your hands. Yup. A three thousand dollar chalkboard (including cost of projector and mounting). That’s just lovely.

My gut feeling is that they should be targeting specific schools and building on success. There’s going to be thousands of classrooms where this technology is completely wasted. Let’s just be realistic here. I would love to be able to provide this sort of classroom to every teacher in my school, but I wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t be used in every classroom.

Wow, he’s talking about spending around $7,000-$10,000 per classroom for this. In three years, I wonder just how many of these rooms will be out of date without ever being used.

Bah and bah again. Batteries are dead in my Altoid battery pack. Consequently, it only recorded for 16 minutes and I didn’t even realize it. Not a great start so far on a personal level!

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