Topic: Depending on whose research we read, class size does or doesn’t matter. Why does class size matter to you?

I hadn’t thought about class size in a very long time. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I devoted the issue any serious thought. As a student, I think we don’t really question it. We have to accept classes of whatever size we get placed in, so we might as well just roll with it. And now that I’m out of school and only reading/discussing education from afar, I must confess that the issue is not one that often rises to the forefront.

Is that a bad thing? Maybe. Perhaps the issue deserves to be brought up once in a while – and luckily it was this week!

Right off the bat, it seemed like the actual topic for this week’s discussion was discarded in favor of a more specific one. Very few people were making the case that large classes were not a problem for teachers (and even the ones that were had to qualify it by saying “certain subjects/lessons lend themselves to large classes at certain times”), and so the topic really turned to: What is the optimal class size and how do we achieve that number while balancing shrinking education budgets?

This is something that happens in #edchat sometimes. Either the question has too many parts and we spend the entire hour discussing only half of it, or it’s too general and we spend a few minutes in the very beginning answering the specific question before moving on to weightier (but related) issues.

Main themes from the discussion:

• Classes are definitely too big! No doubt about it, teachers are pretty stressed about the number of students assigned to them each year. Classes of 30-45 students are hard to control and make providing each student with individual attention quite difficult. Not only that, but having 3-5 sections each semester means that each teacher is responsible for grading hundreds of assignments each week! This puts huge strains on a teacher’s free time and on the time that they have available to plan lessons. Less preparation means less effective teaching, and that’s a problem for everyone.
• There is a such thing as “too small.” But before we start a revolution and demand that all teachers have no more than a dozen students under their care each year (so they can really get to know them and help them individually as much as possible), we need to remember that sometimes larger classes are beneficial. After all, it’s not just factual learning and understanding we want. It’s cooperation and teamwork too. Larger classes do present more opportunities when managed properly. So what is the optimal size? It seemed to me that it ranged from 10 (for special needs and very high level courses) to about 25 (for average courses), based on the tweets this week. Some teachers can handle more; others prefer less. It’s often a question of experience.
• The real problem is teaching methods, not class size. One thing is certain: you can’t teach a big class the same way you would teach a small class. The dynamic is totally different. And while it may be optimal to campaign for smaller classes overall, right now we’re sort of stuck with what we’ve got and we might as well make the most of it. This means taking the time to adequately prepare lessons that are appropriate for the number of students that you are teaching. Doing that is actually in our sphere of influence, after all.
• To properly prepare teachers, we need to set aside more time for preparation. Good preparation takes time, and no #edchat would be complete without plenty of reminders about how busy teachers already are. Still, lesson prep is one of those things that you need to make time for, one way or another. It might mean giving up some free time or cutting back on the number of assignments that you grade, but it needs to happen – especially if you find yourself with classes that are just a bit too big. I saw one tweeter propose higher salaries for teachers with more students. I think that makes sense, since it clearly is more work. Another suggested slowly increasing class size (to a point) based on experience levels. That also seems wise.
• It’s always about the budget. In the end, though, the final deciding factor is always the budget. After all, it’s entirely possible that the higher-ups already know that the optimal class size is somewhere between 10 and 25. They’re probably just bound by the budget (and the size of their school building) to form classes of 30, 35, and 40. It’s just the sad reality. Accepting that, it really does make sense to search out other ways of effectively reaching each student, because that’s the bottom line goal. And I think, if you go through the archive of this week’s #edchat, there are plenty of good ideas for doing just that.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Classes are too big!

CTuckerEnglish I hate feeling like I am scrambling to keep my head above water with huge classes. It tends to suck the creative energy out of me!

mikevigilant We only have 30 comps per lab but some classes with 35 kids have 5 who don’t know what to do!

jguarr Budget increased our class sizes this year. Went from 30 student max to 35. HUGE difference.

michellek107 in large classrooms, children with dominant personalities can “monopolize” teachers’ time. Quiet children fade.

katetheteacher For my job, I pull out struggling students for individual attention. 1:1 time is crucial for some kids, & lost in larger classrooms.

JasonFlom If the goal is a #wholechild education, class size definitely matters. If “student achievement” is test scores, maybe it doesn’t.

tomwhitby Increasing class size is a way to reduce cost. It has nothing to do with quality education. Larger classes cost less, so we deal with it.

<> Class size isn’t the end-all, be-all…

lemino I’m not a teacher, but as a mom I can see class size doesn’t matter. The method does.

MertonTech  I feel like as experience increases, class size can increase as well. But there is a top limit.

drdouggreen We need to be flexible with class size. For movies/lectures, fill the auditorium. For other activities, small groups/1:1.

chlupa Why does a student need tons of teacher attention for personalized ed? Isn’t the point collaboration and sharing?

QZLPatriotHawk It’s not that larger classes can’t learn; it’s that classroom management is more difficult if you approach teaching the same way.

davidwees Is a focus on reducing class size the wrong place to focus? What about sufficient time to collaborate, learn, and prepare?

RogoNic A class can also be too small in my opinion. You lose the energy and opportunity to learn off others. Gets a bit intense.

AGMichal I used to teach at a very small school. Often had classes of 6-8 for some activities; I wished I had more students.

<> A few resources:

cybraryman1 Can infusing some Self-Directed Learning http://t.co/I5nudKaG in a large class help teachers?

politicalteach EdWeek article on class size laws: http://t.co/ZK4IuNtf.

vanroet A blog about 1:1 schools: http://t.co/nBWxYq9b.

politicalteach Looks interesting, regarding class size effects on achievement: http://t.co/mcR0T1R1.

politicalteach Reducing class sizes was one of Finland’s moves toward improving their education system:  http://t.co/tTacVOlX.

cybraryman1 I had success in large class when I used Cooperative Learning projects:  http://t.co/oHX8gZBR.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: What should a report card look like to provide information to parents?

Since I’m not a teacher and it’s been quite a while since I paid attention to my grades (by college I had stopped caring about grades and started focusing on what I was learning, understanding, and retaining), I didn’t think that I would get much out of this week’s #edchat. Then again, I am going to have a kid in school soon, and I can’t imagine not caring about his report cards when he brings them home.

I’m actually really looking forward to my step-son’s report cards when he starts kindergarten later on this year. As far as I can tell, that’s the age where we really have report cards nailed down. From what I hear, kindergarteners (and even first and second graders) don’t really get grades. They get stars, happy faces, and other little trophies for good behavior or for demonstrating that they’re learning in some way. It’s not really so much about achievement as it is about heart.

Of course, at some point kids need to grow up and learn that the world is about achievement (and many other things). But are we rushing it? Is it misleading to start giving kids A’s, B’s, and C’s while they’re still in elementary (and even middle) school? What does that actually accomplish?

There are tons of #edchat participants who are outspokenly “anti-test.” I think that’s reasonable. Anyone who reads anything about education in this country knows that most teachers (and parents, and students) are getting fed up with the amount of standardized tests we put our kids through – and with the importance we ascribe to them. But as it turns out, I’m not the only “wacko” out there wondering if we’re overdoing it with the grading too.

We heard from plenty of teachers this week who think that grades are simply not the best way to communicate with parents or the best means of summarizing a student’s abilities. And that’s really what report cards and grades are for, right? It’s not like they go anywhere else but home to be signed and off to college admission offices to be reviewed.

As with all good #edchat experiences, this one serves as only the beginning of a much larger discussion. As Tom Whitby pointed out to me, the best part of #edchat is what comes afterwards. Reforming report cards is yet another item we can add to the list when we finally get around to making real changes to our archaic educational system.

Main themes from the discussion:

• How relevant are report cards, really? David Wees asked where they came from, and then later on pointed out that “back in the day” they used to be reports of how many biblical verses each student had memorized. Arguably, they’ve come a long way since then (and so have most average students), but are they really necessary? Couldn’t we replace them with something like an online portfolio or with weekly email updates on student progress? Personally, I think we could (or at least we could supplement them with these things), but it seemed like most teachers were hesitant to throw what may be the only fool-proof means of parental involvement out the window. At least, until every family has home internet.
• We need them, but they need to change! Admitting that we need report cards, are they okay in their current format? The resounding answer to that is “NO!” Everyone had one quibble with them at least, and most had many. I can’t even begin to summarize all the complaints that were voiced, so I will remind you to look for the archive of this conversation when it goes online.
• We need less of an emphasis on grades. This was one of the main points against report cards that nearly everyone agreed on. While there were a couple folks who stood by grades as a means of motivating and ranking students, many others were quick to point out how completely subjective grades are (an A in one district might be a C in another), and how they’re just as likely to demoralize a student as they are to motivate him. Still, asking all schools to do away with grades on report cards is not going to happen, especially because colleges use them as a major determining factor when selecting applicants.
• We need more of an emphasis on personalized comments. If we’re stuck with grades, how can we make report cards useful? One of the biggest points I heard a lot of people making this week was that we need to get rid of standardized comments because they mean almost nothing. Of course, the corollary to this is that teachers need to provide much more individualized feedback for each student. This can get time-consuming, and as we all know teachers aren’t exactly made of free time as it is. I suggested that we should have teachers create audio reports on each student instead of taking the time to type something up. This would allow parents to get more feedback than they would normally get on a report card without being entirely too burdensome on the teacher. Others suggested reviving the lost art of the parent-teacher conference.
• Report cards are only one way for teachers and parents to communicate. One final point that I feel needs to be emphasized (because I saw it come up more than once this week) is that report cards should not be the only time a teacher communicates with parents. It should never be a surprise when a parent opens up their child’s report card – especially if that student is struggling. Teachers need to remember to involve parents early and often, even though this can be one of the more difficult components of the job. But hey, nobody ever said teaching was easy, did they?

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Good questions:

cybraryman1 I feel we have to start with what do parents want on a report card?

MertonTech How relevant is a quarterly report card when we have the ability to have access to a live report card via the internet?

davidwees Does anyone know when and where report cards first developed? What’s the history of the report card?

cybraryman1 Should grades be replaced by teacher comments & individualized assessment?

jheil65 Hasn’t the existing ed system made grades the endgame? Learning takes a back seat to grades and standardized tests.

<> Good answers:

TeachersNet Reports should be 1. frequent, 2. succinct, 3. report progress measured against past performance, and 4. show standing regarding grade level.

GTConsultant Parents in my districts don’t even look at report cards with the online grades they look at everyday!

davidwees ”The best report cards are the ones where the teacher speaks up. They’re personal. A grade – it just doesn’t say enough.” @John_Merrow

cheflincoln Report card should look like a Job Evaluation! Isn’t employability and not gamesmanship the goal?

MertonTech Portfolios of work. Students choose what they think is their best work.

<> Less grades, more comments:

jheil65 @mikevigilant My problem with grades is that there is no direct connection between grades and learning. . . Learning should be primary!

davidwees What the modern report card needs is not more numbers, but more meaningful information.

aaronmueller A modern report card should do away with canned comment codes. Online reporting can allow students to see “big picture feedback.”

VanessaSCassie Love the idea of a “work ethic” column on the report card.

Caplee62 Yep, my school had no grades. At first parents confused and then they loved it.

<> A few resources:

cybraryman1 My Parent-Teacher Communication page:http://t.co/zvwQ21nJ

delta_dc I like to use the analogy of a trip:http://t.co/QoHOBtZ3

davidwees ”What mattered in 1825 on your report card was how many lines of scripture you had memorized.”http://t.co/0C9yGqZY

cheflincoln Has anyone mentioned Shawn Cornally andhttp://t.co/Hisz9eDW his SBG gradebook? Worth a look!

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: How do we consider time differently to rebuild school schedules and calendars to maximize learning?

Sometimes, when I’m out and about on the roads early in the morning, I see a school bus and think to myself, “Why on earth do we make kids start their school day so early?” It wasn’t too long ago that I was one of them, I can remember how torturous it was to get up before the sun rose and try to get my brain out of hibernation mode.

Many times I’ve wondered what it might do to our education system if we just pushed back the beginning of school by an hour or two. I suspect it would improve focus and, by extension, learning and knowledge retention. I’m sure there have been more than a few studies on the subject, although the fact that we still are doing things the same way suggests that either the correlation between later start times and better student performance just isn’t there or that we just don’t care to change the status quo.

Either way, my thinking on adjusting school schedules never extended beyond pushing the start of the day back a bit. This week’s #edchat, however, went much deeper than that. It was amazing how quickly the community spat out more suggestions in a single hour than I would have been able to come up with in a week. Of course, that’s what I expect when I sign on to #edchat these days.

Ideas ranged from the realistic to the radical; from the small tweak to the complete overhaul. I fear that even some of the simpler suggestions will go completely unheard thanks to the rigid administration that seems so prevalent in public schools these days. But at the same time I have some hope that teachers can make some of these new ideas work on their own – or maybe they can bring them up in a private school setting, where things aren’t set in stone.

Change may come slowly, but it is encouraging that there are so many good teachers (and other school staff members) out there who are working on it every day.

Main themes from the discussion:

• What do we want to do: extend the school day or restructure the current school day? This is a central question that needs to be answered, and carefully. Do we think that we need students to spend more time in school (kids in other countries often do go to school longer and for more days every year) or do we think we can do better with the time we have? We also need to consider how homework plays into this. Do we want to effectively extend the school day “unofficially” by giving more homework or by flipping the majority of classrooms?
• Should we extend the school day? It seemed like there were a good number of teachers who favored extending the school day. Most of these folks admitted that they wouldn’t just focus on academics if they had more time, however. They wanted more time for extra-curricular activities, sports programs, and tutoring to help those students who were falling behind. There was some discussion over whether participation in “after hours” activities should be mandatory or optional. I think convincing cases can be made for both sides.
• If we extend the school day, won’t that cost us more money? No #edchat discussion would be complete without a discussion about how we plan to pay for all these brilliant ideas. It certainly seems logical that if we extend the school day we’ll have to be paying a lot more salaries and hiring quite a few more people. But what about volunteers, such as parents or older students? What about private tutors who wouldn’t get paid by the school system but would be compensated by the parents who decided to enroll their kids in their programs? And what about renting out the school building during off hours to various organizations as a way to defray some of these extra costs?
• Restructuring the school day is the way to go. There were just as many folks who preferred to rearrange the school day as wanted to extend it. I think that makes sense (and is itself an argument in favor of making an extended school day optional). Tom Whitby had an interesting idea to teach students five subjects per semester and to have each subject meet once a week all day long so that teachers could go really in-depth. David Wees suggested making the school day more “fluid,” allowing teachers to bargain amongst each other for extra time when necessary. And Jerry Blumengarten (better known as the Cybraryman) wondered if we should try to combine subjects a bit more. Each of these suggestions is a way for teachers to have the time to go deeper into their subject matter, and I think each one deserves some consideration. Unfortunately, they’re all a bit on the “radical” side.
• What about just focusing on not wasting so much time? This, I think, is one of the best and simplest suggestions from this week’s conversation. Every school (and teacher) should, on an annual basis, reexamine their general practices to see where time is being spent inefficiently or completely wasted. For example: do all students need to sit and listen to the announcements for every grade level every morning? Or couldn’t announcements be made via email or other social networking services? The possibilities are probably endless.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Great questions:

birklearns Is there a need for a longer school day, or is the solution restructuring the day that we have?

cybraryman1 How do you feel incorporating more self-directed http://t.co/HtLsFiGC and blended learning? http://t.co/cgTtePy9

cybraryman1 How do you feel about combining some subject areas?

<> In favor or rearranging the day:

davidwees We need to examine our school schedules and ask ourselves, where does this schedule come from?

bjnichols Time cannot be segmented into blocks. It should be around projects or problems. Life is integrated, not isolated.

mikevigilant Just let each team decide–if nothing’s going on in science and math is blowing up, shift a little time around.

davidwees @drdouggreen Ever been in the middle of a deep learning activity with students and been interrupted by the end of class?

tomwhitby Teaching 5 periods a day for 5 diff classes: How about each class one day a week for 5 periods? Result: more continuous project time.

<> In favor of integrating the school day more:

DoeMiSo As a music teacher, I’m integrating other subjects all the time. Why should it be so hard for others?

MertonTech @rliberni @TestSoup Give the kids social time with their emotional peers, and learning time with their intellectual peers.

stumpteacher @cybraryman1 There are so many natural connections in learning that teaching in isolation no longer makes sense.

<> Challenges to integrating the school day more:

mikevigilant @cybraryman1 Combining subjects would be great IF we weren’t accountable for test results on *our* subject. Would you give up time?

<> In favor of a longer day:

Loldsteach My son’s high school stays open three hours after dismissal to allow students access to the resources. It’s a start.

rliberni Think of all the art, drama, and sport that could be done at school!

cybraryman1 @rliberni I would like to see more choice given to students after academics of areas (arts, sports, etc.) to explore.

mr_isaacs Open the school for more activities. Let students stay because they want to stay.

MertonTech @TestSoup Keeping the building open can be a revenue generator.

<> Challenges to extending the day:

birklearns For students who are not fond of school, more school would be awful. Eating more brussel sprouts doesn’t make me like them…

davidwees @PrincipalPC @tomwhitby ’It will cost too much’ is an excuse to continue to do what we always do; it keeps us ‘safe.’

rliberni Does an extended day need to have teachers? What about parents? They have expertise too. I think we often underestimate the skills that others have (parents and other people attached to school).

<> Great miscellaneous comments:

tsocko @jswiatek I’ve found that time isn’t wasted if teachers are properly prepping and recreating lesson plans, not just extending old ones.

PrincipalPC @drdouggreen @ShiftParadigm We should not worry about gaps — we should worry about maximization of capacity.

TeachPaperless One problem is that we tend to think that if a student isn’t learning in our classroom, they aren’t learning.

Mamacita My own memories of elementary school are mostly of waiting, waiting, and waiting. And being punished for working ahead.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: Which should we support first for the best result? A reform in student learning (teaching methods) or a reform in teacher learning (professional development, or PD)?

Back into the swing of things with the first #edchat of the new year! The gang didn’t waste any time getting back in the saddle, either. I saw most (but not quite all) of the regulars joining in the discussion at one point or another, even though some (like myself) were a little tardy to the party.

This week’s discussion was an interesting one for two reasons: 1) it asked educators to choose which is more important for a teacher to do: teach or learn, and 2) it treaded on ground that we had already covered before (recently), making for a slightly more in-depth conversation than I think would normally have been possible.

Last time we talked about professional development for teachers, we had to spend a lot of time just bringing those of us (I was a newbie at the time!) who didn’t know much about teacher PD up to speed. A lot of good information was given out by the old hands, and if you missed the discussion on EdCamps and UnConferences (or simply would like a refresher) I strong encourage you to go back and read my summary post.

This time was different. This time the conversation focused more on how to improve existing PD and implement new/better ideas properly. Why? Because everyone seemed to agree pretty quickly that obviously the most important thing to improve is teaching – but that you can’t improve teachers if you aren’t training them to constantly improve themselves!

So this week’s discussion boiled down to a great chat about how to both improve educator PD and how to speed along implementation of all those great ideas floating around out there. And all of this in service of the students.

Main themes from the discussion:

• Is it possible to improve one without the other? The consensus seemed to be: probably not. And it was universally agreed that, even though the ultimate goal was to help students learn, focusing just on teaching and ignoring the PD side would be attacking the symptoms and not the cause. Teachers can only teach as well as they are taught to teach. Thus, to improve student learning, you must first improve teacher learning.
• What kind of PD are we talking about here? Right away it was decided that we weren’t even going to waste our time talking about “bad PD.” By that, I mean single sessions where some “expert” gets up and talks to a whole bunch of teachers about what they should be doing to accomplish X, Y, and Z goals set by the administration, the state, or the federal government. That’s useless. So when we use the term PD, remember that we’re talking about “good PD.”
• What is “good PD?” That’s a good question (and one that we sort of answered last time we talked about it in November 2011). But to simplify things down and summarize a bit, it seemed like most educators agreed that good PD was an ongoing process initiated by the teacher, guided by a mentor, and facilitated by administration. To get more specific than that, you’ll have to look into the transcript of the conversation when it’s available.
• Teachers need to take responsibility for their own PD. This was a major theme; perhaps even the biggest theme of the discussion. Teachers are supposed to be experts in their field. Experts never stop learning. They can’t, because if they do they’ll get overtaken. Of course, administrators need to remember that it is their job to help facilitate this process (and to push, when necessary), but the bulk of the responsibility falls on the teachers.
• What about students? This wasn’t really discussed, but I think it’s a legitimate point so I’m sticking it in here. Almost everyone seemed to agree that teachers should have at least some role deciding what they learn about. This will help them care more about what they’re doing. So I wonder: does the same apply to students? Or can we not trust them to pick and choose the important stuff? Maybe that’s a topic for another week.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

<> Initial reactions:

drdouggreen This is a chicken and egg issue.

tomwhitby @drdouggreen I don’t see it as chicken/egg. I believe the emphasis must be on ongoing teacher training in order to impact student learning.

birklearns What are we calling PD? One-time events that happen during the year, or ongoing? I believe we can significantly impact ongoing PD.

USCTeacher Probably can’t do the first one before the second. Student learning is the priority, but if teachers can’t facilitate that, we need PD first.

<> Ideas for Improving PD:

1st4ceu RT @ebonstorm: Professional development should not be considered a punishment. Done right, it should enhance the teacher’s abilities and options.

John_DAdamo Professional reflection is what makes PD worthwhile. Dialogue about what consists of good PD can in/of itself become good PD.

CTuckerEnglish So often I leave PD sessions with a million great ideas but hit hurdles implementing them. An ongoing support network would be awesome.

CTuckerEnglish So much money is spent bringing people in for PD. RT @CriticalSkills1: Mohr said “The wisdom is [already] in the room.”

hadleyjf We need to model “Active Learning,” and no more “Sage on Stage” in PD.

tomwhitby In NY every school is required to have a mentoring program for new teachers as a form of PD. Is that true for all schools in the country?

vpigreenie @tomwhitby No, it is not true for all schools in the country. I would guess it is actually a rarity more than a norm.

<> Who should be in charge of PD?

jonbergmann What if PD was for teachers to learn ANYTHING they wanted and we supported their learning. I bet this would change the way they teach.

John_DAdamo @love2learningp @tomwhitby How do we build a culture that values self-directed PD? Including when admin may not support?

ghostexecutive RT @doctorjeff: Dictating what a learner should be curious about is a huge mistake right out of the gate, and you reap what you sow.

mikevigilant A tweet scrolled by too fast for me to get to, but I like the idea of teachers dictating what they do (and don’t!) want PD for.

drdouggreen @tomwhitby If you are a professional, shouldn’t you be responsible for your own development?

tomwhitby Left solely to their devices, teachers may not be leaving those damned comfort zones. Little reform can result. PD needs direction. Guided and directed PD should be the priority for reform.

cheflincoln Should implementation of PD be included in teacher evaluations?

mikevigilant @tomwhitby Nobody trains me because I’m the only one at school who does what I do. If I waited for instructions, I’d be fired by now.

<> A couple links:

inquirebook @testsoup Check out how @amydawnpark had her 4th graders create their own rubrics for a decomposition lab. http://t.co/lQvNRmqt

drdouggreen @amykfmurphy I find tons of sources for quality PD online. Take a look at http://t.co/DMYqOAZP to see what I find.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: How are “Best Practices” defined, and how do we use them to improve the effect of teachers?

This week’s #edchat was a great example of why “two-part” questions are not always a good idea. The discussion was excellent, and high-level (as always) but there was much more said about the first part of the question than about the second. I have a couple theories as to why that is.

The first idea that jumps to mind is that people simply have a tendency to get caught up in whatever question gets asked first. We tend to assume that this is the most important part. After all, why else would it be placed at the beginning? Couple that with the fact that most people are not so good at managing their time during meetings and you have sort of stacked the deck against getting to the second part of the question from the get-go.

But the more I thought about it – and the more tweets I read – I realized that “Best Practices” is something of a hot-button phrase for a lot of teachers. Why? Because we’re always trying to tell teachers how to do their job.  Education is one of the most regulated industries in the world, and implicit in all these regulations is the message that “You’re doing it wrong.”

Gone are the days when we actually trusted our teachers. Actually, gone are the days when we actually trusted our experts. It seems like everyone with the internet thinks they know better than someone who has been studying (and practicing) their craft for their entire life.

I am sympathetic to the fact that teachers are probably fed up with hearing about the “best practices” of other teachers. They know that just because it worked for one person one time that it’s not guaranteed to work for them. Still, we also know that it’s massively beneficial to share ideas. That’s why we love the internet so much, right?

Well, that and funny cats.

I would have liked to see a little more discussion on the use of best practices to improve education, but I think we also know how to accomplish this. At least, anyone who participates in #edchat already knows it. Communication is key. Putting yourself out there to learn from (and to teach) others about teaching is how great ideas get spread and education gets better.

And that’s really all “best practices” are: great (teaching) ideas.

Main themes From the discussion:

• Just the word “best” is relative. Actually, almost everything is relative. But “best” is like… really relative… dude. Are we talking about best for that teacher? For that department? For that school? For the county? State? Nation? And what about timing? Are we to consider just ideas from this year or from previous years as well? When you look at “best” in this way, it’s easy to see how the discussion kind of got hung up on it.
• Defining “best practices” is even more difficult. Not only do we have the complication of the term “best” in the mix, but it’s also hard to pin down what should be considered a “best practice.” There were a lot of good quotes and one-liners in the discussion (as always, I encourage you to check out the archive of the full conversation), but it seemed like the general consensus was that “best practices” were things that worked especially well to teach a particular student or group of students something important. After that, things get fuzzy. But I think that general definition is more than enough. It works, and it doesn’t offend.
• Best practices are not always transferrable. This is a big one, and something that needs to be properly addressed when considering what kind of professional development role these “best practices” are going to play. Even if something worked wonderfully before, that is no guarantee that it will work as well (or at all) again. Teaching is a very dynamic profession. By that, I mean that it is constantly in flux. Students bring with them their own set of experiences, and that shapes what kind of lessons they will be open to. Clearly, we cannot look at “best practices” as something that can be pinpointed with ease and then simply spread it around.
• People want to know about best practices. Even though it seemed like a lot of teachers bristled at the term, it was also equally apparent that most participants in this week’s #edchat wanted to hear about them. They want the great ideas from the great teachers because they know that they are essential building blocks towards becoming great teachers in their own right. And I couldn’t agree more. Learning about what has worked for others is extremely important in advancing any field. As they say: “No sense in reinventing the wheel.”
• The best way to spread around best practices is… the internet. Well, maybe not exactly the internet. Or, to put it another way, maybe not just the internet. The real key is communication (as in solving the vast majority of problems). And the internet happens to be an amazing way to communicate freely and efficiently. Of course there’s social media and #edchat, but there’s also blogs, articles, and forums. The amount of information exchanged every day online is staggering. And it’s a great way for teachers to connect and learn from one another.
• The moral? Communicate more. Never stop learning. Don’t be that teacher who just reuses lesson plans year after year. Grow. Adapt. And always be willing to tell a fellow teacher about one of your great ideas (or listen when they tell you about theirs). This is how the field of education will change for the better. The question is: how do you get everyone involved in education to embrace this sort of open dialogue? It’s an important issue – and it also happened to be the #edchat subject for Tuesday evening. Hopefully they figured it out.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

cybraryman1 ”Best Practice” = what works in a particular situation or environment. Remember it may not work for all, and not at all sometimes.

DrSmartEd I agree with @cybraryman1 with the use of “best.” We are teaching classrooms full of individuals and one size does NOT fit all!

stumpteacher For me, best practice is doing what’s best for each individual learner in each individual situation.

drdouggreen @passionateaboot The term best implies there is nothing better. Bad term. It also makes admins look foolish as teachers know better.

alainphaneuf Best practices as opposed to better? There are indeed some practices to avoid, no?

peter_lydon Best practice cannot mean “best teaching.” It must mean “best learning.”

mr_isaacs I think ‘best practices’ is a term used for the sake of discussing what works – enlightening for professional development.

mikevigilant @ShellTerrell But see, I feel that Best Practices is a subtle way to standardize everything for everyone–let’s all do it “best” way.

tomwhitby @ShiftParadigm We are victims of a measure and model mentality. The need to package & replicate education.

cybraryman1 RT @JasonFlom: Best Practices are like writing rules. Good to know and employ. And valuable to break — at the right time for the right reasons.

mikevigilant Is best practices just a more formal way of saying “good ideas?” If you think of BP as a wiki, anyone can contribute their ideas, but too many see Best Practices as a locked-down, formal website.

cybraryman1 RT @TestSoup: The definition of Best Practices is “great ideas.” These are to be shared, with understanding that they might not always work.

mrlove314 @mikevigilant There should be a ‘clearinghouse’ for those types of things, where teachers could put their best practices out for everyone.

ShellTerrell Webinars are a great way to learn about effective practices! Here are a few archives http://t.co/zXObbetI

ShellTerrell More effective practices from #rscon3 presentations! http://t.co/3ToBcgVE

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: What is the purpose of education now and going forward?

This week’s #edchat was truly a test of one’s ability to read quickly and tap out Twitter replies even quicker. I think that’s because the topic was so broad that everyone wanted to weigh in instead of sitting back and commenting only every once in a while. I know that I saw a lot of new and unfamiliar names this week, suggesting that either a lot of people signed on for the first time in months or that there are generally many participants that don’t talk as much as they did this time around.

Either way, it’s fine by me! Honestly, I think as many people should participate in #edchat as possible. It might make for a more confusing and disorganized discussion than we had even this week, but as Tom Whitby pointed out to me, the real value of #edchat comes after – on the blogs, in the water-cooler conversations, and as the continued sense of motivation felt by those teachers that participate.

Sometimes we forget that the value of something goes deeper than the thing itself. I know that I was guilty of that this week. I was getting frustrated that this week’s #edchat didn’t seem as beneficial as the other ones in which I’ve participated. But I realized that that didn’t really matter. For one thing, value is subjective (meaning some may have thought this was the best #edchat ever), and for another, I was forgetting that the value of #edchat is as a conversation starter (not as the conversation itself).

Of course, there is still one thing that bothered me about this week’s #edchat, and that’s how quickly it changed into a discussion of why standardized testing is bad and how poverty affects what teachers can reasonably be expected to accomplish. Both of these issues are important, to be sure – and I can certainly understand how they would be hot-button issues for teachers in this day and age. But do we really need to talk about them every week? I don’t know. Perhaps we do.

Anyway, on to the main themes and the list of my favorite tweets. As I am viewing this week’s #edchat as the beginning (or perhaps a continuation) of the conversation, I am mostly going to focus on some of the excellent questions raised and ignore most of the (sometimes equally excellent) 140 character responses. So I highly encourage you to take some time and read through the archive of this week’s chat, once it’s up.

Main themes From the discussion:

• The purpose of education is… education. Can education (or learning) be an end unto itself? Maybe; maybe not. One thing is certainly clear, though. The purpose of education should be the education itself. It shouldn’t be about anything else, like testing, job training, etc. That other stuff is just that: other stuff. It has its place, but it’s not the stuff of proper education. The emphasis of proper education should always be learning. Why? Because success at anything requires one to never stop learning about that thing (and perhaps many others, too!).
• This question has many answers. Of course, it must be pointed out that the purpose of education is not something that can easily be nailed down – especially not on Twitter in under 140 characters! (Makes me think of that famous phrase by Marshall McLuhan.) Every educator who participated this week had something to say in answer, and most of them were right on the money. And that’s okay. Education doesn’t have to have the same purpose to all people at all times and for all occasions. In fact, it definitely shouldn’t.
• One must consider who is asking the question. If I ask you what the purpose of education is, as someone who blogs about education, you might give me a very different response than if a principal who just gave you a lecture about standardized tests asked you. Or a parent who wants to know why you’re giving his kid so much homework. Or a taxpayer wondering why he pays so much money for public schools when he sends his kid to private school. And on and on and on. Truly, perspective is important when considering this question. That’s something of a disclaimer.
• Are “school” and “education” synonymous? Now we’re getting into the real meat of the discussion. I believe it was Berni Wall that asked the question, “Do we really need schools?” In other words: “Can education happen better outside of schools (as we currently know them)?” The general consensus seems to be that there are many, many improvements to be made, but that we shouldn’t throw out the entire institution simply because it isn’t perfect. Nothing is. I think this is sage reasoning. As tempting as it is to look at all the necessary reforms on the docket and decide instead to start over from scratch, I don’t think that’s the best way to help students. Which is, after all, the goal, right? To help students.
• Educational goals are evolving over time. This is another meaty issue, and one that is nicely illustrated by fact that this discussion happened over Twitter. Let’s say, hypothetically, that we had stumbled across the ultimate goal of education; that we had firmly nailed it down. Even if we had, in a few weeks it would be almost entirely gone and forgotten, remembered only on a few blogs (like this one) and in a few teacher’s jumbled memories. Twitter itself is transient, just like education. Education is here to help students live in (and change, hopefully for the better) the world around them. Because this world is a dynamic one, education must be as well. That puts a lot of pressure on educators. Fortunately, there are some truly great ones out there.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

elanaleoni @pernilleripp wrote a great blog on the purpose of #education. In her words: “It is to learn.” http://t.co/FWrDslil

weisburghm Goal of education for whom? For the students? Community? Parents? Future employers? Nation? World?

davidwees Who should decide the goals of education? Is it industry? Private interests? Educators? Parents? Students?

tonnet Is the purpose of education to just graduate professionals?

CrudBasher Perhaps rhetorical: If everyone has different idea of purpose of education, can one system fit all answers?

tomwhitby The goal of education is different from what it was 10 years ago. Problem is, most educators come from that era. It can be daunting.

weisburghm Is education FOR the students or TO the students?

drdouggreen @jdavis43 A lot of what happens in schools is done for the comfort of the adults.

MrTwyman5 Maybe another question should be what is NOT the purpose of education and to what extent does policy prevent that?

MertonTech Is education for the society or for the individual?

tomwhitby 10 Ways School Has Changed… http://t.co/1jFc8nSN

rliberni @jrichardson30 Education is much more than a just a process. It has many guises — is it possible to define?

tomwhitby If we are creating life-long learners with great self esteem, is that a measurable commodity by graduation?

rliberni Do we really need schools?

cybraryman1 Learning takes place everywhere and at all times.

weisburghm As a parent, I wanted the education system to help my kids lead happy lives that help others.

tomwhitby Here is a goal http://t.co/vpZiauz7

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: What changes could be made to the present management structure of education to make it more effective for educators?

This was another #edchat that I was prepared to basically sit by the sidelines for – not because I had lost interest but because I feared that I would have nothing to contribute (not being an educator). Luckily, there’s always so much going on with #edchat that it’s almost impossible to sit by the sidelines unless you are firmly committed to keeping your mouth shut even when you might have something useful to say or a good question to ask.

I think a certain amount of conflict between employees and management is unavoidable.  Management is tasked with making do with limited resources (and in the education world, those resources seem to keep getting more and more limited all the time) while teachers are tasked with educating our children the best way they can. The same dichotomy exists in any business. The employees are expected to perform while the management is expected to keep costs as low as possible. It’s a balancing act.

Unfortunately, this balancing act becomes slightly more important when we’re talking about a child’s education instead of a firm’s profit margins. And when you consider that public education budgets will likely take a hit as federal spending inevitably slows down in the US, striking the right balance between teacher needs and managerial decisions will only get more difficult.

Enter Tuesday’s #edchat discussion. In essence, it was asking how we can work to improve the relationship between teachers and administrators so that a school’s scare resources can be allocated most efficiently and so students won’t suffer from the inevitable budget cuts. At least, that’s my take on things.

Main themes from the discussion:

• This is a highly subjective discussion. No doubt, this one was going to depend mightily on what school and what district we’re talking about. Every school is different. Some teachers seemed like the came to this #edchat with a list of complaints and demands ready and waiting. Others seemed to be relatively pleased with the balance that had been struck between them and their administrators. Considering how many administrators participate in #edchat, I was surprised at how civil the discussion went.
• Administrators need to do a better job including teachers in their decisions. I think this one is a common complaint. How often have you complained that your boss “just doesn’t understand” or that he “doesn’t remember what it’s like” to do your job? This is a universal concern, even though (in most cases) administrators and management have to move up the ranks (meaning they have done your job). Still, it is a valid point. Sometimes administrators make decisions that are unrealistic. Optimally, these get changed down the line once they see that they won’t work, but all that trial and error could often be avoided if they listened to teachers from the get-go.
• Administrators need to be reminded what it’s like to be a teacher. There were some administrators in the discussion that said that they filled in for absent teachers regularly. That’s awesome, but it’s all too rare, apparently. Many, many teachers echoed the same sentiment: that administrators needed to experience teaching for themselves as often as possible so they could be more sensitive to their needs. And if actually stepping to the front of the classroom isn’t an option, they should at least observe (not evaluate) from the back frequently.
• Teachers need to be made aware of what administrators are dealing with. The flip side to the issue of administrators forgetting what it’s like on the front lines is that many teachers simply have no idea what kind of pressures an administrator is under. These come from all angles, ranging from tight budgets to calls for higher scores on standardized tests to expanded support for sports and extracurriculars. Everyone wants theirs, and it’s the administration’s job to figure out how to deliver it all. That’s tough work, and teachers need to appreciate that.
• Communication and involvement is key. Bottom line. You can’t expect to have a good relationship between teachers and administration if both sides think the other is screwing them over or not appreciating their work. Teachers and administrators need to work together. It’s not rocket science; it’s not a new idea. But it also isn’t easy. Unfortunately, it has to be done. There are children’s futures at stake here. I even heard a few educators calling for more parental involvement in school management, which is a nice idea but would need some fleshing out.
• The problem might be the people instead of the management structure. Perhaps the reason that this issue is so subjective is because it’s not that the management structure is the problem. Maybe it’s the people that are the problem. This begs the question: what can be done to attract better people to school administration? Also, how can we improve those administrators that we already seem to be stuck with? Job security is pretty big in education. (Should it be?)
• The worst administrators (and teachers) are those who stopped learning. This, again, I think is a rather general rule of thumb. All of the most interesting and effective people I have ever known are people that never stopped learning. When you stop learning, you stop improving, and then you inevitably get left behind. So, logically, the best way to improve administrators (and teachers) is to encourage them to keep learning. This also meshes well with the idea that communication is key, because when you communicate you learn.
• We might be focusing on the wrong thing entirely here. What if the problem is not with management at all but with the overall educational system that we have in place? If that’s the case, then focusing our energies on reforming management might all be a waste of time. This is definitely something worth pondering.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

saraallen91 @cybraryman1 I think that entirely depends on the administration at each school. Our admin really listens & supports us as teachers.

cybraryman1 The key point is including teachers (students and parents) in the process.

mrdglhs Administration should be required to be in classrooms observing (not evaluating) 1/2 day per week. Helps them see needs first hand.

apospirit Have all people relaying the same info –> not be in conflict with one another. I’ve heard some teachers/admins learning conflicting things in different training programs.

tomwhitby Getting buy-in from teachers for policy changes would be a nice touch to leadership.

DrThomasHo We have the means to take our story directly to the community & do NOT need admins to do it for us. They do it so badly anyway!

weisburghm Community, parents, administrators, and communities must work together to improve education. Nothing works in a vacuum.

MertonTech What roadblocks are teachers hitting that would spark a change in management structure?

mrlove314 @fliegs If teachers don’t want real feedback then they must not be doing something right.

davidwees What I would like to change about education structure is not the management structure, but the learning structure.

jdavis43 @davidwees @mikevigilant It amazes me how many teachers quit learning.

davidwees @TestSoup The administrators I’ve worked under with whom I’ve been most impressed have all been learners.

tomwhitby The revolving door for administrators often allow things to fall through the cracks without follow-up or consistency.

tomwhitby I have always thought it would be interesting to have all admins take substitute teacher positions for a few days each year.

mikevigilant Another good thought: RT @delta_dc:@geraldaungst Perhaps the consensus position is that trust is required from all parties.

rliberni RT @tomwhitby: @geraldaungst If Admins respect and support their teachers, teachers may offer more leadership than admins pay them for.

whittclass RT @tomwhitby: Education administrators need more staff consultation and leadership and less control and reactive policy directives.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

###

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: Is blended coursework, a combination of face-to face class time and online study, a viable option for secondary education?

I had a little catch-up work to do before this week’s discussion, mostly because I had no idea what “blended coursework” (or Blended Learning, BL, as it was referred to by most) actually was.  So, assuming that you might be a newbie like I was, let’s do a quick review of some definitions.

Blended learning (also referred to as hybrid learning, but that’s less common nowadays) is education by way of a combination of in-person classes and online coursework.  It differs from distance learning in that the students do meet with their professor in person, regularly.  And it differs from “standard learning” (my own silly term) in that not all required coursework is done in the classroom with the instructor.

“Now, hold on a second,” you might be thinking.  “That sounds a lot like what my kids already do at school!  They go into school to work with their teachers all day and then they come home and do homework on the computer.”  And I must admit, you have a point.  Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine a school that doesn’t make some use of the massive educational resource that is the internet for high-school and college students.

But the question is: should we increase our reliance on the internet?  Can some classroom time be ditched in favor of online education?  And, of course, would the change be a positive one?

The question is a timely one.  More and more schools are taking advantage of the plethora of free or very cheap resources available online as a way to maintain educational standards while cutting education budgets.  Others are embracing technology simply because they recognize the awesome potential of it.  And then, of course, there are those that are reluctant to change.

It was a lively discussion – and one that teachers, administrators, and education bloggers will be continuing for years and years to come.

Main themes from the discussion:

• We already do this.  There were a good number of teachers who pointed out, quite rightly, that they already take a blended approach to their classrooms.  They have “flipped” their classrooms to allow students to work on what is traditionally homework in class and watch/listen to lectures at home.  Or they have incorporated wikis and blogs into the curriculum.  Or they have made assignments and notes available online, and require their students to turn things in via email or a drop box.  Truly, the possibilities are limitless, and what’s nice is that you can choose what you want to “outsource” and what you want to keep old-school.  It’s very adaptable.
• What do we lose with less face-to-face interaction?  This question was brought up later in the discussion by David Wees, but I put it towards the top because I think it merits a prominent place in our thoughts as we head down this road.  It is undeniable that face-to-face interaction is a big part of education.  I remember being told by my parents (both teachers) that college was mostly about interacting with a lot of smart people; not so much about classes.  Preserving that sense of community in school is important, and we need to take care not rely too heavily on technology and forget what people add to the equation.
• What do we gain with blended learning?  On the other hand, using the internet and other technology for educational purposes carries with it some undeniable and awe-inspiring advantages.  For one thing, you get to draw from a much larger pool of knowledge when you’re not limited to just what the teacher knows.  Students also can work at their own pace more, push themselves in more diverse directions, and collaborate with people that would normally be totally left out.  Truly, the possibilities are endless, and I highly recommend going through the archive of the conversation (when it’s up) and reading all of them, as most people in the conversation chose to focus on the positives.
• What about the underprivileged?  Of course, no #edchat would be complete without a discussion of what to do for those students without access to the internet or a computer at home.  This is a theme that comes up week after week in #edchat, and while I don’t think it is an issue that can or should be easily or quickly dismissed, it is also one that I think is partially irrelevant.  Should we limit progress until everyone can join?  If so, that puts serious restrictions on what progress can be made.  Also, several people brought up some good ideas for what to do to help those underprivileged students, and I have copied several of them in the section below.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

delta_dc What problem is blended learning trying to solve? And how can we be sure that it is solving it?

Trinity6215 @cybraryman1 My MS child has online learning. She enjoys the net, but LOVES her teachers.

kstansberry Un-blended learning is audacious in the assumption that the teacher/school/textbook is the font of all knowledge.

simplyserina Blended learning helps to cultivate and teach digital literacy, which is essential in the now and future workplace.

delta_dc Isn’t all learning blended? A combination of teacher-student mentorship, student-student interaction, and student self-study?

davidwees I think we need to remember: no one model works for everyone.

littleacorn72 I think that BL is a spectrum and teachers can choose what works best for their students/class.

ShellTerrell @MikeGwaltney @davidwees It all boils down to the training. Teachers who understand how to implement will do it effectively.

davidwees @blairteach Almost everyone in #edchat is already talking about what we gain, and very little discussion about what we lose.

MertonTech From participating in #edchat for a long time now, some concepts are echoed almost every time. Like tech access for the poor.

MertonTech Blended learning can happen anywhere, including 100% contained in the classroom.

pamwesely What if schools (and students at home) don’t have reliable online access? What are options to help with blending?

mikevigilant Until everyone in the district has internet access at home, I just think this whole blended/flipped/whatever is a nonstarter for us.

cybraryman1 @mikevigilant I know it is not the panacea but students can work with others who have access. Wish all had access.

bwasson @mikevigilant I never had a newspaper subscription at home, but still had to do multiple weekly current events assignments using one.

blairteach This whole notion of not doing something until everyone can do it disturbs me. Get the crowd moving and pick up the stragglers.

mr_isaacs Seems like every #edchat topic has the caveat that teacher’s must be willing to give up some control. I see a pattern.

ShellTerrell One of the easiest blended learning tools I show teachers to use that has a lot of buy-in are wikis!

cybraryman1 My Blended Learning (BL) page: http://t.co/YKHzR93H

TestSoup @mikevigilant I know the blogger Iserotope teaches underprivileged students and uses a BL model. http://t.co/Sw5cxuXk JJW

CTuckerEnglish I blog about my experiences teaching BL & have excerpts from my book (The Perfect Blend) — out in June catlintucker.com.

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: Will the idea of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) help or hinder education?

It’s Thanksgiving week, so I thought that this week’s #edchat would see a much smaller and more intimate group of regulars.  Wrong!  Yesterday’s conversation was just as frantic and bursting with insight as every week.  I guess that’s what keeps us coming back for more.  I saw one tweet saying that this was the best break; the best way to recharge your batteries, and although I can’t exactly describe #edchat as relaxing, it definitely gets your education motor running strong.

In the interest of full disclosure here, I figure I should remind readers that I am not an educator.  I don’t teach students, and I have very limited experience being in charge of even a small group of them.  And, of course, I work for a company that feels very strongly about integrating mobile devices into education.  So naturally I approached this conversation thinking that BYOD can definitely help education.

What I found is that I am not alone in thinking this.  That’s no surprise, of course.  Those that participate in #edchat are a progressive bunch, generally far ahead of your average teacher on the tech curve.  They’re here because they already know that new technology makes some amazing things possible.  So would we waste an entire hour congratulating ourselves and agreeing with each other?

Again, the answer should be obvious. Of course not!  Nobody does #edchat for the glory.  They sign on every week to share insights and increase their own supply of knowledge and great ideas.  In other words: they get down to brass tacks, and that’s what we did this week.

Very quickly, it seemed, the overall topic was already decided, and the discussion turned to what difficulties might arise when instituting a BYOD policy in a classroom or in an entire school.  There were three main objections raised, and I will go through each of them in the next section.

Main themes from the discussion:

• How do you handle all the tech issues that will inevitably arise?  This one was brought up almost immediately.  Probably in the first few minutes.  You see, some teachers are already dealing with classrooms that are BYOD, and they know that when students have electronics in front of them they will naturally have questions and need help.  How is one teacher supposed to plan lessons that are compatible with every conceivable platform?  How is one teacher supposed to find the time (and the expertise) to solve every conceivable problem?
• Fortunately, many of these teachers also proposed solutions.  Some had found that students could generally solve problems on their own if instructed to do so.  Others found that putting student groups in charge of troubleshooting specific devices freed up valuable time.  A few admitted that they were quietly trying to learn everything they could about all the most common devices.  I think a combination of these approaches could go a long way.  The important thing would be to make it a school-wide strategy.  We can’t have some teachers holding students’ hands all the way and others expecting them to walk on their own.  It needs to be consistent.
• How do you level the playing field for those students who can’t?  This was another issue that was brought up rather quickly.  I think it’s a valid one, but also one that can be misleading.  Sure, we want to equip all students the best way we can, but the fact is that schools have differing resources at their disposal.  And so do students.  But do we handicap everyone in a class because some people can’t afford to bring in their own iPad or smartphone?
• Again, many teachers chimed in with some great suggestions.  It was pointed out that for every laptop, smartphone, or tablet that one student brings, that frees up one from the school for a student who needs it more.  I think that’s an important point, and one that should not go understated.  Every little bit helps.  It’s also easy to forget that many of these resources can be shared by several students with little loss in productivity, as long as they can work effectively in groups.  But the bottom line is that some money will need to be spent by many schools to provide resources for those students without them.  That seems inevitable.
• How do you keep your classroom safe and on track?  This point didn’t get made until a little later in the discussion, but it’s still a valid one.  How does a teacher, looking out at a sea of faces behind computer monitors, tablets, or smartphones, know who is working and who is playing?  How do they keep everyone focused and productive?  And how do they make sure that those “distracted” students aren’t digging around on the internet for illicit material?  Both these questions are ones that I, personally, am unequipped to answer.
• I do know, however, that both tech people and teachers are pretty darn smart.  Sure, a student here or there might be able to slip through the cracks and play solitaire instead of participating once in a while.  But students will always find ways to zone out – and teachers will always notice.  Similarly, I’m sure that a school’s tech team could find a way to police what gets accessed online by multiple devices if they put their minds to it.  Every problem has a solution, even if its imperfect.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

mikevigilant: LOL that’s today’s #edchat topic? In my state it’s *illegal* to BYOD to school! Might need to fix that first!

bhsprincipal: @cybraryman1 I believe we have a moral imperative to allow access to more resources for staff and students. #edchat

 teacherdebra: #BYOD implies teacher is not the expert in the room; this is a shift teachers have to make. #shifthappens #edchat

jasongraham99: Teachers also need some lessons from the kids. Got a G10 teaching me about iMovie at the moment. #edchat

TestSoup: I wonder why it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to help a kid with whatever tech he brings? Why not let them figure it out? #edchat JJW

TestSoup: In HS, I could bring in any calculator I wanted, but my teacher told us that he could only troubleshoot TI-83s. It worked. #edchat JJW

davidwees: @TestSoup One of our students does much of the support for Mac users, for example. #edchat

jasongraham99: @davidwees @TestSoup So in a way its good learning experience. Still frustrates teachers though. Teachers need more skills? #edchat

MertonTech: I am constantly amazed at how few people, even with the internet, learn to do small things for themselves. #edchat

davidwees: @MertonTech @TestSoup I’m developing a culture of “you need to know how to do this too.” Also, have supportive and driven staff. #edchat

MertonTech: Imagine how much less you’d have to pay people to do simple things if you had 2 more hours a day for #education. #edchat

ShellTerrell: RT @TestSoup Assignment idea: Solve this problem using tech. Then make a presentation of how you solved it. Teach the rest of the class. #edchat JJW

(Sorry if I seem like I was a little self-serving this time with my favorite tweets.  This week’s discussion was so fast and frantic that I fear I missed some of the best tweets that weren’t directed my way or a response to a conversation I was following.  I strongly recommend looking up the archive, when it’s up.)

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.