tkt8763-01: Knowing What IT's Worth (fwd)

["Larry S. Anderson -- NCTP" <lsa1@ra.msstate.edu>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 22:10:56 -0400
From: Ferdi Serim <ferdi@SILICON-DESERT.COM>
To: COSNDISC@COSN.ORG
Subject: Knowing What IT's Worth

HI Folks,
I want to share with you excerpts from my current editorial from the May
issue of MultiMedia Schools, for your enjoyment, and in the hopes that it
sparks a sharing of "what works" in supporting student learning. Please
feel free to respond off list (I'll be glad to summarize any conversations
that result) or continue the discussion at NECC ;->

Thanks!

Ferdi
-------------
May 99 Direct Connect: Knowing What IT's Worth by Ferdi Serim

I'm on my way to a Town Hall meeting where techno-skeptics and
techno-truebelievers will "debate" the merits of Information Technology,
and the prospect makes me queasy. This isn't because I'm worried about who
will win, but because deep down I know that in the absence of fact, all we
can rely upon is opinion. Without reliable data, public debate pivots on
passion and pundits. Critics of education technology unfairly single out
technology as having "unproven value in terms of contributing to student
achievement," when the reality is that in education we rarely assesses what
is working for the children we serve, technology or otherwise. Yet, this
condition need not persist. This issue of MultiMedia Schools shows us how
people are meeting the challenge from a variety of approaches, and provides
us with practical ways we may improve our own daily practices through
assessment.  (see http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/MMStocs/may99toc.htm )

One lesson that twenty years of "introducing" Information Technology into
schools has taught us is that vision is paramount. The landscape is
littered with wasted investments of time, talent and cash, where districts
skipped the part about "understanding why they needed technology" to meet
their educational goals. Clearly, charting a course is important, but once
underway there is nothing more crucial than knowing whether your movements
are bringing you closer to or farther from your goal, and this requires the
continual gathering and analysis of performance data.

Where to Begin

One of the most elegantly simple yet transforming suggestions comes from
Heidi Hayes Jacobs, an internationally acclaimed education pioneer. Her
book, "Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum & Assessment K-12",
outlines a strategy which has succeeded in districts from small to large,
rural to suburban to urban. "Curriculum mapping is a procedure for
collecting data about the actual curriculum in a school district using the
school calendar as an organizerŠThe fundamental purpose of mapping is
communicationŠMapping is not presented as what ought to happen, but what is
happening during the course of a school year."

The roles and implications for School Library/Media Specialists, Technology
Teachers and Classroom Teachers are profoundly different in schools that
use Curriculum Mapping. At the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts,
school director Mary Ann Holt reports "Curriculum mapping gave us an
opportunity to reflect on what was being taught, the way we were teaching,
and where our problems were. An integrated map is posted outside each
classroom for visitors, parents and interested parties to view. We consider
these maps works in progress and expect them to change and grow as we
change and grow." She noted, "teachers began to plan with our media
specialist, as a result of mappingŠ. This also provided teachers with
another collaborative colleague. The classroom teacher and the media
specialist were both able to see the picture of the entire school and to
naturally work library research skills into the curriculum." Mary Alice
Anderson's Evolution of a Teacher column reinforces this synergy.

I recommend the book (available from ASCDŠI got mine from Amazon.com,
proving Andy Carvin's point about a Digital Revolution!) for its insightful
suggestions and detailed appendices of actual maps and resources.

Know Thyself, Know Your Setting

You have an opportunity to assess your readiness through Tom March's column
Ten Stages of Working the Web for Education
(http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may99/march.htm), as you place yourself
on the spectrum he describes. You can further this inquiry by checking
NCREL's Learning with Technology Assessment Tool
<http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profile.htm> to see the readiness
stage of your school or district. It's an eye opener! You can follow the
examples provided by Peter Pappas and Peter Sullivan, who describe how
they've used online assessement to guide and shape their courses, to the
benefit of their students.

How Can Technology Help?

One other lesson two decades of IT has bestowed upon us is the realization
that change is not an individual pursuit, but requires systems thinking.
Paul Preuss's feature Converting Goals to Achievements makes this point
eloquently. There are a growing number of excellent products which offer
system wide solutions to schools' assessment needs. Managing the torrent of
information which results from a commitment to gather student performance
data is not for the feint of heart. Such solutions require the buy-in of
the entire education team.

Conclusion

Knowing what IT's worth depends entirely upon context. Only when technology
serves an entire system that's working in concert to support student
learning can it's benefits be realized. Until we begin looking at what's
really happening with our students on a daily basis, we have no hope of
adequately addressing the question. As Heidi Hayes Jacobs reminds us, "For
years we've lacked the power of an overarching context for making
curriculum decisions. The information that would inform decisions has been
lacking or impossible to collect and understand." We are fortunate to live
in a time when we can move beyond this limitation, and apply the power of
technology to improving the art of learning.



______________________________________________________
Ferdi Serim                        phone: 609 921-3135
Princeton Regional Schools         fax:   609 924-7347
Computer Teacher
Online Internet Institute, Director http://oii.org
ferdi_serim@monet.prs.k12.nj.us (school)
http://oii.org/ferdi/Ferdi.html

co-author: NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/netlearn/

"We are more than the sum of our knowledge,
   we are the products of our imagination." - Ferdi

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