I was fortunate and honored to be asked to speak at a recent conference for The Software Information Industry Association (SIIA). They are all wonderful people in a group that represents a major portion of education software developers and manufacturers. I had some great discussions with some very smart and driven education-minded, business people. As I stated in my last post, many of these people have come from the ranks of educators. My big take away from this conference however, was not about all of the great new products coming from the companies that these folks represented. What was most evident to me was the driving force behind all of the great stuff being developed: DATA. In this world of monetizing education data is King. It is what business understands.
Knowing that makes it easy to understand the point of view of many of our industrial, or business-background, educational leaders, who are leading the way in education today. They are data-driven leaders. They believe that we need Data to analyze, and adjust, so that we may move forward. Of course, if we analyze, adjust and move forward according to the Data, and change doesn’t happen, there must be a reason that requires us to think through that reason in order to adjust. If there is no improvement, someone must be held accountable, because the data is always reliable. All things considered the fingers of the data-readers begin to point to the variable in the equation; the teacher. Of course Business oriented leaders will additionally include the Bane of any business leader’s existence; the unions.
Now before everyone gets their backs up, let us consider another possibility. Let us consider that maybe the merging of the mantras of education and business are not working out together. Maybe “Content is King” merged with “Data is King” does not add up to a learned individual. Maybe the focus on content, so that education can be easily assessed by Data is really the wrong thing that we should be analyzing. Maybe, how we teach, is a much more important element in learning than what we teach. Maybe the data is totally correct about what it is assessing, but what it is assessing is not what we should be looking at.
I always go back to the way technology is assessed by some schools. They test kids out, interject some tech stuff, test the kids again, and check the results. If the results are poor, or if there is no difference, then it is deduced that the tech has failed to make a difference. Hence, Tech does not work. The questions not asked are important. Was the teacher properly prepared to use the tech? How were the students trained to use the tech? Was the culture of the class supportive of the tech? Was the tech that was selected the best tech to achieve the teachers goals? Was the teacher involved with creating the lessons using the tech, or was it packaged lessons? How much support did the teacher receive during the project? Of course we could go on with even more questions. The point is that the right questions and conclusions need to be applied to the data.
I met many, very smart, and successful people at that conference. I did not ask one of them what the data said about their personal competence as a learned individual. I judged that for myself by their accomplishments, communication skills, social skills, and even appearance. Not one person had a name tag with their test scores evident as a means of introduction. I only hope they were equally impressed with the opinions I expressed as an educator who is more than somewhat opinionated. I am sure my Hawaiian shirts gave them some mixed ideas.
As teachers, we all have our specific content to teach. That has been our goal since public education was introduced. It is what we do with that content that makes the difference. We can put it out there and have the kids commit it to memory. We can put it in video form and have the kids commit it to memory. We can put it in a PDF form and have kids commit it to memory. That would all make it easy to do a data analysis. We could probably require specific things be covered by all teachers, so our kids would all get equal educations in every state in the country. We could even develop a single test everyone could take at the same time. That would help standardize education. Then we could compare apples to apples as well as oranges to oranges around the country.
Another way to look at it would be to use that content to teach skills of collaboration, communication, and the ultimate “ation” of all; creation. Memorization of content (although difficult for many) is the thinking skill requiring the least amount of thinking. As a skill it is needed, but not coveted. Having the facts is helpful, knowing what to do with them, and adapting them to any situation is priceless. If teachers focused on teaching learning instead of the more easily assessed content memorization, we would have a population of critical thinking, creative, innovators who continuously learn even after leaving school.
At the final presentation that I attended at this wonderful conference, I gained a little more insight into the direction of Tech in education today. This was a panel of some very impressive, forward thinking presidents of tech in education companies. My first insight was that there are a great many companies developing gaming for education. My second insight into the Edtech direction was not as hopeful, at least to me. The two phrases that really caught my attention were “classroom instruction” and “BYOD (bring your own device)”. Both of these told me that the tech companies, like many people in general, believe that kids need to go to a specific place to learn, the classroom. If we are to be successful as educators, than how we teach kids better involve a way for them to learn outside the classroom. No student should be limited by the content knowledge of their teacher. If I taught all my students everything I know, it wouldn’t be enough for them to live in their world. What we are teaching will be irrelevant. How we teach kids to learn will serve them for a lifetime.
The two phrases that really caught my attention were “classroom instruction” and “BYOD (bring your own device)”.
I think another view point is – BaB. Bring a browser. From my view, having connectivity to the web can make a siginficant difference to what is learnt, how it learnt and how learning is tested, attributed or referenced.
This also devalues the ‘font of all knowledge’ style of teaching and hints at learner mobility. Interesting times lay ahead.
One of the key messages I take from your post is that technology or content are not going to directly influence learning. Pedagogy and practice are key to any successful learning. Teachers need to be able to plan a range of effective learning experiences that take into account their students’ varied prior experiences, knowledge and, most importantly, the many different learning styles of the students. One size does not fit all – this needs to be applied to teaching and learning practices to give all students opportunities to succeed. Testing is just one small component of authentic assessment. There are so many ways for students to demonstrate learning.
Collaboration, communication and creativity are essential skills. I would also include inquiry skills into this list. These are transferable across subjects and life experiences. There should be more emphasis on these holistic skills and strategies in education. Once students have this, content learning is easily achievable and ultimately the student is better skilled to join the 21st century workforce.
Your final sentence says it all. Teaching our students to be able to think and process higher levels of problem solving will enable them to seek out the answers and create solutions that go far beyond what I can deliver on my own. With the abundance of technology available, it is counterintuitive to reaction a textbook that was published in 2002 and expect student engagement.
Tom, you were the first educator who helped me into the world of social media. In March, when I started to read your Tweets and follow your Island discussions, I was thrilled by your insights. In my 52 year as an educator fighting for kids and quality education, taking personal risks, creating schools and educational research centers, consulting, traveling and teaching, I learned to see, what you obviously see, the overall picture.
In my years as an educator, I practiced what I was professing. In that time, I did not join a university faculty (except adjunct) or play the publish-or-perish game. In 1993 I wrote what some consider a cult-classic about experiential education. Crow Canyon: Pioneering Education and Archaeology on the Southwestern Colorado Frontier. It is in its 2nd printing and available as a free download at cdescry.com I have been involved in educational programs in the far north, 34 miles above the Arctic Circle, to the tip of Florida. I have studied education in 22 countries. As I reached my 70s I began working with Millennials and digital natives to understand the new forces that education/educators must adjust to: The Information Age, and the Interactive Age. I wrote Vital Lies: The Irrelevance of our Schools in the Information Age. as a format for a national dialogue. It has received great reviews from those who have read it. But even though I have given the book free to you and other educators, few have bothered to downloaded it. I realize this is a new age. But if those of us who have survived the wars with our idealism intact cannot share what we have learned with those on the lines, we will keep doing the same things expecting some magic from technology or corporate takeovers of our public schools to solve problems.
What you do and write is a significant contribution.
Thanks,
Edward F. Berger, Ed.D. edwardfberger.com
Great post, the section about assessing tech really resonated with me. If you give the same old test you have always given that test knowledge retention, not higher order thinking skills (that a good technology program can help develop) such as creating, evaluating, analyzing, etc. Then the kids will NOT do better on their test.
Great thoughts– I like this idea: how you teach is more important than what you teach. This isn’t a new idea– just one that is sometimes ignored.
[…] Blog post from Tom Whitby @tomwhitby “How we teach trumps what we teach“ […]
“I judged that for myself by their accomplishments, communication skills, social skills, and even appearance.”
This makes me sad, and makes you sound like a shallow person. It is one of the recurring problems I have with the modern world and technology in education. We are placing too much value on style, show, glitz and sex appeal instead of substance and content. Personally I’d take an autistic person with no social and communication skills, but vast expertise and knowledge, over what you are looking for any day. For example see Temple Grandin:http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html
[…] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com (via @PrincipalAlton) – Today, 4:53 […]
The data driven world is killing learning. Test scores and the bottom line define school districts and this is criminal–a complete disservice to not only our students, but also to humanity. Children enter preschool with the natural willingness and desire to learn. We teach it out of them to fit properly on the district’s data sheets. Powerful post–speaks to the most significant issue in education today.
Thanks for this reminder – sad to realise that however hard you try as a teacher to be creative, kids will remember very little of their school content but they CAN learn how to use their initiative and creative thinking – good communication and problem-solving skills also take you a long way. Wish more teachers would remember this and not take the lazy way out with reading notes and rote learning.Thanks and please keep these conversations going.
[…] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com – Today, 10:00 […]
[…] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com – Today, 8:47 […]
I really enjoyed reading this post. Thanks for reminding me why my favorite teachers were always the ones that took the time to teach me how to learn. I can never thank them enough! It was a pleasure spending time with you at the conference.
[…] 3.Tom Whitby’s (www.tomwhitby.wordpress.com) post – “How We Teach Trumps What We Teach” […]
Wow! I was recently nominated for Regional Teacher of the Year in Washington state. Part of the application process involves answering questions regarding my views on education. My “platform” focused on the very ideas that your presented in your blog! “Great minds think alike.” -A. Einstein
[…] I was fortunate and honored to be asked to speak at a recent conference for The Software Information Industry Association (SIIA). They are all wonderful people in a group that represents a major po… […]