Tag: Education

Stuck on OER (and somehow quotable)

One of the things on my bucket list is to be referred to (some day) as an expert.  You know, like those quacks on FoxNews in the split screen with the green screened cityscapes behind them.  For some reason that seems glamorous to me.

Getting quoted by a reputable blogger/educator only helps me take the first baby steps toward that goal.  Enter Miguel Guhlin, a really skilled and experienced Director of Instructional Technology in TX who quoted me on his blog (woot!).  The quote, well, it was from my comment left on this really interesting post at http://connectivism.ca that discussed the future of education technology and the differences (shortcomings?) of Learning Management Systems (LMS, which include Blackboard and Moodle) and Social Networking Sites (SNS, Facebook, Ning, etc.).

Here’s my comment in full, the bold is what Miguel picked out:

Great article, I really liked the fact that Martin chimed in about Moodle’s use and its design. I’ve been using it for several years and over that time have worked my best to educate teachers about the social features that can be used (as simply as the discussion forums). But training apparently isn’t enough, as course designs/construction almost always defaults to a content centric approach. It’s no fault of any Moodle administrators or trainers, it’s just that the Moodle tools provide a very easy way to organize content (and it’s often the very first thing taught to new Moodlers).

I’m eager to see the new features in Moodle 2.0, however I’m not sold that they will accomplish the necessary change alluded to in this blog post.

On another note, perhaps my biggest gripe is that we’ve provided teachers this AWESOME tool to structure courses and content that could easily be used by other teachers, but the software locks it down (or at least, it provides tools that are easily configured to “close” the content to the outside). Sure there are Moodle course exchanges, but far and wide content is closed to outsiders, difficult to procure (even if a backup is available) and not available as OER. Imagine if all the content created in Moodle were open? THAT would be a great asset to the educational community and would be ripe to transition past the “build today use for 3 years model” to more of a social approach (where the best content floats to the top of social interactions because it’s freely available).

I’ve got a soft spot for Open Educational Resources (OER — and I mean really, truly open resources, e.g. no passwords, fees, indexed by Google).  Part of it is driven by the fact that I think we (the human race) should have access to every subject matter that we want to learn (for free).  The idea of paying for access to certain content just seems less and less acceptable as I get older (at least some of that stems from how spoiled I am by my personal learning network and the internet, which never fails to edutain me).

The other part is driven by the fact that OER makes education easier.  It’s faster to use content that’s already been created and in many cases, that content has a high probability of being higher quality and vetted (not to mention thoroughly checked and re-checked by those that have come across it before and used it likewise).

So…how might I become an expert?  Well, I think the first part is to continue contributing to the discussion about OER and how it should be organized, categorized, classified, etc.  The other way to turn out any and all of my content as OER (but I really haven’t found an effective way to do that either).  Truly open resources are hard to come by (but they are out there: http://www.oercommons.org/), I hope to make it my job to advance and grow OER.  (After all, that’s 50% of the mission of http://Coursefeeds.com)

Student Load vs. Teacher Quality

The debate continues.  As a master’s student at UVM my thesis focused on Vermont’s historical trends in educations which contributed to and set the stage for our high ranking public school system (at the time, according to certain resources).  I placed particular emphasis on the fact that Vermont’s long standing traditions and demographic arrangements had contributed to very small class sizes (the pupil to teacher ratio is still around 10:1, one of the lowest in the nation).  Subsequently this also means that VT has one of the most expensive education system on a per pupil basis in the country as well.

It’s nice to think that Vermont has the best public education system in the country, but that’s hotly debated with each of the number of sides, resources, experts, etc. pointing to a diverse array of statistics: class size, student achievement, teacher pay, graduation rate, unemployment, etc.  It all depends how you define “outcomes”.

I’ve been swayed from my original assertion that VT had it good because of the low class size (which was more caused by geography and population density than any public initiative).  And it seemed that a lot of other individuals had been too, even Bill Gates who threw a lot of money behind the small schools movement has largely backed away from it.

In my opinion, the debate swung to teacher quality and effectiveness and is partially being driven by Michelle Rhee and others (the question of merit pay has also been wrapped into this discussion, though I think that effectiveness/quality is and should be the focus).  There are plenty of questions remaining (like how to measure effectiveness in real time, rather than retroactively) but I like where the debate is going.

It’s interesting to see though that the Total Student Load theory¹ is still getting attention.  Could it be both?  From personal experience, it was much harder to get lost in a small class (just think back to your senior seminar courses in college).  But from the other side I can also remember big classes where the teacher was awesome and their instruction was lasting.  It’s no wonder we can’t make up our minds.

¹note that the article might be password protected at Edweek.org, but it’s basically a write up on William G. Ouchi and his new book The Secret of TSL.  If you really want to read up on class size and the debate against it, Eric Hanushek’s research is well known in education as an opponent to the class size argument (he says it’s bunk).

Rhee's new plan: "D.C. Public Schools Teaching and Learning Framework"

I’m a big fan of the reforms happening in DC.  I like it for a lot of reasons (it’s cutting edge, it’s gutsy, it’s far reaching implications, etc.) but mostly because Michelle Rhee has vision (and the cajones) to bring her ideas to fruition.

The Wapo recently wrote an article about how Rhee expects to measure teacher success, which is by and large the biggest obstacle of the reform.  It’s easy to say that the best teachers will be retained and the worst kicked to the curb or rehabilitated through professional development, harder to actually say which teachers are which and why.

Rhee’s new report/plan, which apparently is 200 pages (put together in part by an educational consulting firm from the District–note the copy I found online is only 50 pages…), outlines how teacher success will be measured.  It touches on several aspects of the evaluation:

  • new regular assessments by principals and other staff
  • how many times student outbursts are permissible (in a set period of time) – good teachers have control of their classrooms
  • the number of minutes that can be wasted in any 30 minute period (3.  Over that and it’s obvious the teacher isn’t well prepped)

I perused the copy I found online and found the insights and directives incredibly easy to follow (honestly, from reading the document I think ANYONE could be a better teacher).  It’s succinct, easy to digest and reads like a “how to” instead of a “do this or else”.  In fact, the document clearly outlines expectations, how one might accomplish them and “what excellence looks like”.  What else could a teacher ask for?

But if I were just getting my info. from the Wapo article and I were a DC teacher I might be shaking in my booties.  It doesn’t paint a very favorable (in my opinion) picture of the reforms that will affect measuring teacher success.  It’s more of a punch list of changes, including the fact that the number of students is increasing at the same time these new criteria are being imposed.

The situation in DC is a challenge in the simplest sense of the word.  That being said, I would also be thinking to myself that measuring these new criteria is a MONUMENTAL task: possibly involving huge amounts of qualitative observation and coding (just like the kind I did as a student in Graduate School at Syracuse University) in order to get a handle on whether or not the teachers are meeting expectations.

I’ll be watching this unfold in interest.

“D.C. Public Schools Teaching and Learning Framework,”

Aside from the assessment of teacher quality and effectiveness, I think that some really great changes were also highlighted by the Wapo and these come in the form of disciplinary revisions.  At least some of the anecdotal evidence of educational reform concedes that setting up the right culture for learning can have a positive influence on student achievement (and maybe even teacher effectiveness), just look at KIPP.  The revisions specifically target for what and when students can be suspended for.

BEFORE: students could be suspended for simple dress code violations

AFTER: students can only be suspended for situations like cheating, bullying and other such violations

The old code permitted suspension for such an array of offenses that the punishment lost any real meaning, officials said. Principals were allowed to send students home for dress code violations, which is not permitted under the new rules.

According to the most recent available data, suspensions grew from 1,303 in 2006 to 2,245 in 2008 — a 72 percent increase. School officials say that removing students from school only puts them behind in class and can lead to truancy and trouble with the justice system. (from page 2)

Let’s hope that the superficial, cultural changes like that above can make a huge difference so that districts aren’t forced to hire observers to code their every classroom activity/action.

The Golden Age of Education

In a recent “Open Education” post, the concept of TMI “too much information” was discussed in context of our ability to make sense of the news in front of us, buffetting us, surrounding us.  The article is a great read about how lots and lots of information has changed the game (for good or bad, well, that seems to be in the eye of the beholder).

The article ends with this, a discussion of “A Golden Age”:

A Golden Age

If knowledge is truly power, then we should be entering a golden age, one where everyone has unlimited access to the authority once held only by the elite in society.

The fact that we seem to be far from such a place does beg several questions.

And the biggest one befalls education – many have written that the next phase of schooling must move towards a focus that places the information age at its core for the next generation of learners. In fact, it would seem that the words of Postman are most prescient – twenty years ago he noted the volume of information that was being produced and the issues that it would present.

But education changed little over those 20 years. So we now have a large group of citizens unable to emotionally and intellectually handle the breadth of information available to them.

The answer is certainly not to limit information. The answer is in creating an educational system that helps individuals understand how to best make use of the knowledge.

The power that today’s information-rich society has available is truly unprecedented. As always, education is the great equalizer, but now we must turn our attention towards helping our young people learn how to filter, reduce and use the knowledge that is accessible to them.

I’m good with that.  The issue I see though (and I see this everyday) is that the realm of education by default, places itself outside the information.  It’s a walled castle with limited access and filtered news.  If you were to make a little venn diagram of “Information” and “Education’s Information” (which represents what students and teachers have at their disposal on any given day) then just their edges would be touching.

Early in the Open Education post it talked about the Davinci Institute’s stats on blogs, books, and videos.  At best, few schools provide their students access the complete library of information available through video and blog posts (blogger and youtube are often blocked completely).

I agree with the need to have education refocus on the information available.  But if it’s filtered what’s the point?

I heart education

There are those things in life that just give you that feeling.  Butterflies brought on by the excitement of envisioning change.  I can see the change that needs to happen in education.  I just want to help it happen faster.

I’m not even sure if many teachers have this feeling.  I hope they do, but I imagine it gets “beat” out of some over a few short months of adhering to standards or getting pushed aside for the core competencies that states and governments continue to push.

Give me a few and I’ll do my best to contribute.