We still educate children by batches

Message to the department of education!

I just heard on the news today that the government is planning a more rigorous action against schools who separate students according to ability. They are afraid of students being stigmatized and want to prevent the establishment of elite classes. That is my guess anyway. In reality students know very well who master the different subjects and are for the most part aware that students have different abilities, interests and learn accordingly.

I just participated in a workshop for school leaders in Bergen with guests from Alaska Highland Tech High. There they have a system for grouping students in according to ability and moving them up separately when they show mastery of a certain set of standards. This means you could study 7th grade math 8th grade English and 9th grade science the same year. You can move on to university level in science while you are doing 8th grade level in English, just as an example. You can find the standards on their web-site and the rubrics they use to assess. Their slogan is: Education for Leadership, Educating for Life.. I think it is important to remember that school is there for the students. Students’ voice is important. Let the students decide how and where they want to learn. In big groups, small groups, groups the progress quickly, groups that give you time to process what you learn, alone or with their friends. Together with the students monitor their learning and discuss the alternatives. How can we help you master the different subjects and move on to the next level? We are here to help you in your learning!

Listening to the minister of Education on the radio this morning made me think of the RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson. Sadly I do not think Norway is the country that will be in front in that area. Nothing to be proud of because considering our resources, we certainly should.

How then do we organize our schools?

Schools are still pretty much organized on factory lines. Ringing bells, separate facilities, specialized into separate subjects. And we still educate children by batches. We put them through the system by age group. Why do we do that? Why is there this assumption that the most important thing these kids have in common is how old they are. Is this the most important thing? The date of manufacture? As Sir Ken Robinson, we all know kids who are must better than other kids at the same age in different disciplines. Or even different times of the day. Or better in smaller groups or in larger groups. Or sometimes they want to be on their own. If you are interested in learning you don’t start with this production line mentality, that is all about standardization. I, as Sir Ken Robinson believe we have to go in the exact opposite direction. That is changing the paradigm.

Students loose the ability to be creative after spending 10 years at school where they are taught that there is one answer, and that they can find it in the back of the book, (but don’t look. and don’t copy), because that is cheating! And outside schools that’t called collaboration. We have to recognize that most great learning happens in groups. Collaboration is the stuff of growth, if you atomize people and separate them and judge them separately, we form a disjunction between them and their natural learning environment.

Take time to watch this video and discuss it in your class!

 

Students can assess themselves!

Traditional grading practices centered around teachers collecting student papers and giving letter grades with little real feedback — the kind of practices that are uncomfortably common in some classrooms — are failing our students. Source: Bill Ferriter. He is quoting Dean Shareski and his post about “Adventures on assessment”. I’m pretty sure they have something like this in mind, and I agree, this is not as far from the truth as we would wish it was! See video below!

“So I’m wondering if you’re ready to let your students assess themselves. Not as some experiment where you end up grading them apart but where you really give the reigns over to them? If not, is it about trust? Is it about readiness? Fear?

I’m thinking that even 6 year olds should be able to assess themselves. If we give them the tools and expectations.” Dean Shareski

You have to begin to weigh formative versus summative assessment.” 

We have to be clear that we are talking about summative assessment here.  Formative assessments are on-going assessments, reviews, and observations in a classroom. Teachers use formative assessment to improve instructional methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process. Dr. Robert J. Marzano details the specific benefits of formative assessment—assessment that is used during instruction rather than at the end of a course or unit in his book “Formative Assessment & Standard based grading“

Continuous formative assessment in the classroom led by the teachers,should in my opinion lead to students being able to assess themselves. This is something they should learn at school and as Dean says, probably from year 1. Another point he makes is that we should stop calling what we do ”life long learning” if we’re not going to empower our students to think, learn and assess for themselves.

Different ways to assess

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In a traditional school we have tests with pencil and paper. Even if the students are equipped with laptops, they are not used for tests because it is an easy way to cheat. Using notes taken in class is considered cheating by many teachers. That means one of the qualities we are testing is the students’ ability to remember facts and numbers. Even if the teachers allow the students to use the computers during the tests, most likely the teachers made the test and the questions. Why? Shouldn’t the students be allowed to decide when they want to be tested and how? Shouldn’t they be allowed to show mastery in many ways, not just during a test? Do they need to be tested all the time? Could we even relieve the heavy burden of grading papers for the teachers this way?

If the students were to decide what would they say?

In preparation for the book we are writing in class we have asked students how they want to be assessed. It comes as no surprise that students who do well in traditional tests would like business to go on as usual. But if you questions your students and give them some alternatives, then you get an interesting discussion. One size fits all? Hardly, perhaps by offering more choices you will avoid teachers like our example above. Here is what the students in my class have to say. Perhaps you could encourage your students to take part in the discussion as well?

Dylan Williams

Students do not learn what we teach. No matter how carefully we prepare and deliver our lessons, it is impossible to predict with any certainty what students will learn as a result. That is why the most effective formative assessment does not happen after the learning. It happens within and between lessons. In other words, it is embedded in the minute-to-minute and day-by-day practice of teachers. Video about this here

 

Online tracking – you’re being watched!

What happens when you are online?

The filter bubble (Photo credit: mirindas27)

I recently read the FIlter Bubble, how the personalized web is changing what we read and how we think by Eli Pariser. It’s a book I’ve been planning to read for a long time and a topic we are addressing in the book we are writing in English class this semester. My English class is writing a book about using social media to connect and learn.

More and more schools are equipping all the teachers and students with laptops or other devices and searching the net is one of the main activities when looking for information. The questions we should be asking ourselves are; do we teaching our students how to be net-smart, how to specify their searches and teach them where to look? Do we talk about online tracking and how advertising companies can track what you view? And perhaps even more importantly; do we offer any thoughts to what kind of information we share on social media and how it is used? Facebook user share 25 billion items a month! Who owns this material, who owns the pictures you post? What happens when you delete the picture, what if someone already copied it?When you ask your students to be on Facebook you need to know how Facebook works!   These are some of the questions we should be asking in class and these are some of the topics we cover in the book we are writing.  For more info about the book see here. We are inviting educational experts, teachers and students from all parts of the world to offer their opinion and answer some questions, we would love to hear from you as well!

The Filter bubble

First of all the filter bubble surrounds us with ideas with which we’re already familiar (and already agree), making us overconfident in our mental frameworks  Second it removes from our environment some of the key prompts that make us want to learn. The filter bubble doesn’t just affect how we process news, it can also affect how we think. “Learning is by definition an encounter with what you don’t know, what you haven’t thought of, what you couldn’t conceive, and what you never understood or entertained as possible. This kind of filter that Google interposes between an internet searcher and what a search yields shields the searcher from such radical encounters. The personalized environment is very good at answering the questions we have but not at suggesting questions or problems that are out of our sight altogether  It brings to mind the famous Pablo Picasso quotation: “computers are useless  They can only give us answers”. Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble. 

What should you do?

This infographic below explains what happens when you search online and offers 4 actions you might take:

1. Install an ad blocker
2. Change your cookie settings
3. Turn off referers
4. Install HTTPS everywhere.

Infographic

This infographic was made by BackgroundCheck.org with this graphic.

 

Safer Internet Day

Did you know?

Safer Internet Day 2013 will be the tenth edition of the event, and will take place on Tuesday 5 February 2013. The theme for the day is ‘Online rights and responsibilities’, when we will encourage users to ‘Connect with respect’ 

Know that you do, do you plan to participate? There are all kinds of activities suited for students of all ages. Why do you know about internet safety? What do you tell your students and how do we make sure they have the knowledge needed to be safe and smart internet users. Take time to watch this video and visit their web-site. We plan to participate and would love comments from students and teachers! Look at the students websites listed here on my web-page.

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.

 

My visit to Highland Tech Charter School

On my trip to San Francisco I decided to travel to Alaska to take a look at what they are doing at Highland Tech Charter School. Since my colleague Oddvar Skråmestø was there before Christmas and seemed to be really thrilled with what he saw there, I thought it might be worth the trip. And I have been intrigued about the RISC model ever since Richard DeLorenzo keynoted at our conference in Oslo in 2010.

I like the school’s slogan “Educating for Leadership, Educating for Life”, it should be the main goal of every high school, regardless of country.

To explain the RISC model I quote from the school blog: Highland Tech is a competency-based school where mastery learning is expected, free of the traditional seat time model of education. Integration of technology devices, software, and web-based programs are integral to student learning. Students move at their own pace while developing 21st Century Skills in a learning environment that promotes innovation through risk taking. Staff is also encouraged to think outside the box in order to provide top-notch teaching and learning experiences for students. Shared Leadership and Continuous Improvement (hallmarks of our school) facilitate a reciprocal relation where all members of our community are active learners.

I also like this quote found on the same web page: Richard DeLorenzo of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition presented the following idea:

Change is never easy, especially in a system that has been in place for over 150 years and we will defend it even if we know it doesn’t work because it is all we know.

This is the problem most schools are facing, we know our system is not working for all kids, still we persist on teaching students the same way. Lectures, exercises, tests. Even with all our knowledge about the value of formative assessment we insist on summative assessments moving forward regardless of leaving students behind. When trying to fix our system, the Norwegian government adds fun courses middle school kids can chose from, instead of changing the way required courses are taught.

The RISC schools’ system is bases on standards and rubrics. You need to master a number of standards in order to graduate and you use the rubrics to help you assess your mastery of each standard. Many standards can be worked on in a single assignment making it a cross subject assignment. To be able to do this teachers in different subjects have to approve of the project before you start. No big tests are given and the students can pretty much choose how to present this to the teacher depending on standard and level they are at.

This is an example of a reading standard level 6, analyzing themes: Analyzes, defends and connects theme(s) across texts. Analysis includes examining how the theme carries over time, and shows up in a variety of media/texts.

It would seem to me that in the Norwegian system where we have specific competency goals in each subject area, this could be applicable. My heartfelt wishes for both my school as well as other schools in Norway is that we at least move away from the tests where students need to memorize facts from textbooks and answer questions made by teachers to a system where the students own the learning and ask the questions!

Thanks to Ginger Blackmon and Laura Hilger for inviting me! To my two excellent student guides (can’t remember your names) and to Adam Robinson and his class of Social environments! Really appreciate your kind welcome and showing me how you work! Hope we can continue to work together on our Alaska project! And I look forward to seeing Ginger in Norway!

Written in the skies on my flight from Alaska!

 

Let’s start the new year this way!

Honk if you love someone!

It is a 4 minute movie about one man’s quest to make a city smile. How are you going to make someone smile today?

 

The Tyranny of Homework:

20 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Assign Homework Over The Holidays

I recently read this article at InformED; “a portal for insights in the universe of eLearning and Education Technology”

The article gives 20 reasons why you should not assign homework

I recently joined a Facebook group;  Teachers and parents against homework. There seems to be a growing movement of both parents and professionals who are concerned with homework and its value. I recently wrote about working with meaningful tasks in class and how it does not feel like homework.  See article here. I think my experiences in class connect well with the reasons given in this article. Read the whole article here.

1. Students are learning all the time in the 21^st century. According to a recent article in MindShift traditional homework will become obsolete in the next decade.  Thanks to computers, learning is occurring 24/7.
2. More homework doesn’t necessarily equate to higher achievement. Yes, too much homework can actually be a bad thing.The research found homework was more beneficial for older students than younger ones.
3. Countries that assign more homework don’t outperform those with less homework.  Around the world, countries that assign more homework don’t see to perform any better.  A Stanford study found that in counties like Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic little homework was assigned and students outperformed students in counties with large amounts of homework such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran. from a world perspective.
4. Instead of assigning homework, suggest they read for fun.
5. Don’t assign holiday busy work.  Most academics agree that busy work does little to increase learning.
6. Have students attend a local cultural event.  
7. Family time is more important during the holidays.  Assigning less homework makes it easier for families to have time together.
8. For students who travel during the holidays, homework may impede learning on their trip. 
9. Kids need time to be kids.  A recent article from Australia’s Happy Child website, “What is the value of Homework: Research and Reality” considers this issue and explains how children need unstructured play time.
10. Some education experts recommend an end to all homework.  Etta Kralovec and John Buell, authors of  The End of Homework:  How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning, controversially suggests that homework may be a form of intrusion on family life, and may increase the drop-out rate in high schools.
11. Send a letter to parents explaining why you are not assigning work. 

Read more: http://newsroom.opencolleges.edu.au/features/the-tyranny-of-homework-20-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-assign-homework-over-the-holidays/#ixzz2GoQCtBMq

 

True learning is not standardized!

Student voice

Wouldn’t it be great if your school day was structured around your interests? Wouldn’t it be great if you could work on real life projects that make a difference. Wouldn’t it be great if you could study something that you want to learn more about? Students spend their entire day at school and we are living in a world that is not full of textbooks and methods for memorizing dates. This way of learning isn’t going to cut it anymore. Today we share ideas on a different level. We use social media to interact with others on a large scale. What is school doing in this area? Why do we rely on information from one teacher and one textbook when the whole world is available. Why don’t we communicate, collaborate and learn from and with each other. What are schools and teachers doing to promote this?

“There is a direct correlation between our old fashioned system, and our scarcity for a love of learning.”

If you could chose? What would your school day look like?

Watch this video found on TED Talk. Thanks to George Couros and article “The Need for Innovative Leadership“ 

 

What is the future for learning?

The absence of the teacher in the presence of the internet can become a pedagogical tool

Students are the future, but what’s the future for students? To arm them with the relevant, timeless skills for our rapidly changing world, we need to revolutionize what it means to learn. Education innovators like Dr. Sugata Mitra, visiting professor at MIT; Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy; and Dr. Catherine Lucey, Vice Dean of Education at UCSF, are redefining how we engage young minds for a creatively and technologically-advanced future. Which of these educators holds the key for unlocking the learning potential inside every student?”

Let the teachers do the higher order things, and let the computers do the basic things like; does 2 + 2 equals 4? You should learn something when you have a reason to learn it! Why would school be so rigid if they didn’t need to be rigid. Education as we know it came from war! Victorians made a system that would make us copies of each other! How do you motivate a kid?

What will a curriculum for the future look like?

• Reading comprehension is the most critical skill at this point of time for a generations who is going to read off the screens for the rest of their lives
• Information search and retrieval skills, knowing how to use a keyword and find information. If arithmetic is an outdated skill, this is a skill that will replace it!
• How do we teach them how to believe? How do we know what is worth pursuing and what is rubbish? To arm the child against doctrine (a principle of law established through past decisions)

 

The U.S. State Department Gets in the Education Game

The U.S. State Department is jumping into the ed-tech world with an online game meant to help teach “American English” to kids between the ages of 12-16 in more than 30 countries. Meant to provide players with a view of American life and culture different from the typical portrayal in movies, Trace Effects officially launches today. It’s part of a bigger effort from the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to revamp its website and materials to today’s technology, as well as offer an interactive tool to engage English learners abroad.

We are going to test this game in class and will get back to you our reviews written on the students’ blogs!