Beyond Buzzwords

Lucy Gray
University of Chicago
CEMSE
1Monday, April 12, 2010

Beyond
Buzzwords
My name is Lucy Gray and I’m an education technology specialist at the University of Chicago Center
for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education. I’ve been blessed with opportunities to visit
schools and to interact with other educators who are concerned about the state of education in the
United States.
Today, I’d like to share with you four themes that I believe need to be addressed if we are going to
improve our educational system. My conjecture is that our educational ills are complex and are not
going to be solved solely by the accumulation of more data, more rigorous academic standards, and
weeding out of ineffective teachers. Yes, these things are important, but we must look at how learning
is changing ﬁrst and foremost. Let’s get beyond buzzwords that are really related to fear.

Have we reached
another Nation at Risk
moment?
In the news:
Changes in the publishing Industry
Globalization & the Economy
College Tuition
Test Scores
Data-driven Decision Making
The list goes on...
Noted Stanford education professor Larry Cuban wrote in his blog last October:
“Were national and state leaders to openly acknowledge that blaming teachers as a group for the ills of
poor schooling and then expecting those very same awful teachers to turn around and work their
hearts out to remedy those ills is simply goofy. Over 3.5 million teachers do the daily work of
teaching; they teach reading, wipe noses, ﬁnd lost backpacks, write recommendations, and grade
tests. No online courses, charter schools, vouchers, home schooling, or any other star-crossed idea
that business-driven, entrepreneurial reformers design will replace them. So blaming and shaming
teachers into working harder is no recipe for improved student learning. Surely, like any group of
professionals, teachers have to be prodded and they have to be supported. Prodding they get a lot of;
support is where these so-called leaders fall down badly.”

EdWeek: State of Mind
Disheartened
40%
Idealists
23%
Contented
37%
October 2009
DISHEARTENED teachers are more likely to:
• give their principals poor ratings for supporting them as teachers
• express concerns about working conditions, student behavior, and testing
IDEALIST teachers are more likely to:
• say they became teachers to help disadvantaged students
• believe their studentsʼ test scores have increased a lot because of their teaching
• say that good teachers can lead all students to learn, even those from poor families or who have uninvolved
parents
CONTENTED teachers are more likely to:
• report excellent working conditions
• be experienced in their profession
• work in middle- or higher-income schools
• believe their studentsʼ test scores have increased a lot because of their teaching

Before we expect
and the data to change,
students to step up,
teachers to work harder than ever,
administrators to lead with vision,
we must engage and re-inspire.
In my world, we often refer to the digital divide.We clearly have more divides to address.

4Social Media 21st C. Skills
“Generational Diversity”
Learning Environments
Through examining these four themes, we can re-imagine schools.

Social Media
“Online technologies and practices that people
use to share opinions, insights, experiences,
and perspectives with each other.”
“Social media are works of user-created video,
audio, text or multimedia that are published and
shared in a social environment, such as a blog,
wiki or video hosting site.”
Here’s a quick review of social media deﬁnitions. There is no doubt that kids are taking to social media
as consumers and producers of content. Social media should be embraced in schools, but
unfortunately many schools are taking a reactive stance towards leveraging these technologies.
Here’s the story of one school which believes in teaching kids about social media in the context of
school.

The School
at Columbia
The School at Columbia is a progressive, K-8 private school on the the Columbia University campus. It
embraces social media in many different ways.

Columbia uses Google Apps for Education, including as a place for classes to communicate about their
independent reading. Kids write book reviews for each book they read. This collection is searchable
and organized by class; students are encouraged to leave comments about their classmate’s book
reviews.

The School at Columbia also has its own social network built using the open source Elgg platform. Each
kid has their own profile and avatar. They are guided through the profile development process as part
of helping students’ to explore their identities.
Profiles are also used for historical figures. Everyone’s profiles are tagged with keywords in a tag cloud.
If you click on one of these keywords, you’ll find other profiles that are linked by the common area of
interest.

Lilyʼs Journalism Project
A former high school classmate of mine contacted me through Facebook. She’s a journalist and
screenwriter living in LA and is currently running an after school journalism class for kids. One of her
students was interested in educational technology, so Jodie arranged for her to interview me via email.
I kicked it up a notch by putting her questions in a Google Doc spreadsheet, sending the link out over
Twitter to my educators friends, and Lily ended up with 23 additional interviews. Here’s a map of the
locations of the teachers who responded. There was also a response from Korea and from New
Zealand.
How does technology change the way kids work?

The Partnership for
21st Century Skills
Many of you are probably familiar with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and their framework.
Keep in mind that content is still important, but critical skills need to be woven into this content in
order to adequately prepare our students. This underscores the importance of teachers teaching in an
integrated fashion if they are going to touch on all of these skills.

Pedagogical Shifts
New models of teaching and learning are emerging
New literacies need to be taught strategically
Standards and accountability arenʼt going away
Going global have never been easier
Consider:
MacArthur Digital Media Initiative
Google Search Curriculum
There’s no reason for classrooms NOT be connected to classrooms outside of their school at least.
New models of teaching and learning are emerging
•Rigorous content + 21st century themes
•“Sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”
•A return to constructivist and thematically integrated teaching approaches
New literacies need to be taught strategically
•Development a search mentality
•Cultivation of student personal learning networks (PLNs)
•Digital media literacy
Standards and accountability aren’t going away
•Assessments need improvement
Going global have never been easier

The Key School
Faculty read Learning by Heart by Roland Barth
Examined standards from a variety of sources
Brainstormed a list of 21st century skills, literacies, and
habits of mind
Voted to narrow this list to environmental stewardship,
global perspective, life skills, service learning, diversity,
and differentiated instruction
Faculty “followed their passion” and chose a study group;
charged with certain goals
Here’s an example of how a school can take on the challenge of 21st Century Skill teaching.
Other important facts:
Groups have been in place for three years.
The focus skills have driven capital projects to curricular projects.
Groups have reported out to various school community groups: trustees, divisions, departments,
parents, etc.
Groups have also worked with outside consultants and visited other schools.

“Generational
Diversity”
Generational diversity is a new concept to me and it popped out to me in an a recent article in District
Administrator. The basic premise is: How do we capitalize on experience and innovation in our schools
by looking at generational learning styles? After reading this article, it occurred to me that this seems
to be an overlooked area of school management.
This is not directly related, but after reading a Project Tomorrow study, it also occurred to me that we
need to look at schools and technology from a longitudinal basis. How are we preparing our students
for the long term?
I believe that we are dealing with multigenerational issues in educational technology; it’s not a
simplistic matter of digital natives vs. digital immigrants. Young teachers may know Facebook, but do
they know how to integrate technology effectively and meaningfully?

Beloit Mindset List
How are you prepping your faculty so that they understand your students?

Generational Pyramid
State of the Internet
2009: Pew Internet
Project Findings
and Implications for
Libraries
The vast majority of
online adults from all
generations uses email
and search engines.
While there are always exceptions,
older generations typically do not
engage with the internet past e-
commerce.
Basic online entertainment
(online videos, playing games)
E-commerce
(online shopping, banking, and travel reservations)
Research and information gathering
(product research, news, health and religious information searches)
Email and search
Active engagement
with social media
(visit SNS, create SNS proﬁle,
create blogs)
More advanced online
entertainment
(download videos, music and
podcasts)
More advanced communication
and passive social media use
(instant messaging, visit SNS, read blogs)
The majority of teens and Gen Y use SNS,
but fewer maintain blogs. Online adults
older than Gen X are less likely to use
SNS.
How are you planning to meet the needs of the various generations represented in your faculty? In this particular
scenario, how are taking into generational differences when planning for professional development around
technology?

2007
The year internet connectivity became almost ubiquitous
in schools
This means kids who
just graduated were in 10th grade
current juniors in high school were in 8th grade
current freshman were in sixth grade
Are they really digital natives?
Adults have different learning styles.
Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Yers
Kids have had different levels of exposure to technology. The period of time at which our schools have
been wired is fairly short.

Implications
Increased need for targeted, sustained, and thoughtful
professional development.
Increased need for strategic, thoughtful human capital
planning.
Increased need for long-range planning and vision around
skills sets required by students at various points in their
academic careers.
How are you supporting the needs of adult learners with very different learning styles?
How are you supporting the needs of adult learners with very different learning styles?
How are you preparing to students in relation to changing technology?
How is your school changing to meet the new needs and desires of students?
How are you balancing student engagement and rigor?

The Third Teacher

Learning Anywhere
Personalized instruction
Personal learning
networks
Mobiles
School Design

School of One
Summer school pilot
Middle school math
Flexible space
Personalized curriculum
Regular assessments
Variety in delivery of instruction
Lesson plan bank
Partnered with publishers

So what?
Social networks: Be open to letting your kids drive the
technology use in your classrooms. Engage them in the ways
that they are already learning outside school.
Generational diversity: Change will not going to happen
without schools using a team approach to examine longitudinal
goals.
21st century skills: The art of teaching comes through via the
weaving of 21st century themes into core content. Give
guidance and thought to curriculum and programs.
Learning environments: Start thinking about the whole
learning environment. Personalized learning for both students
and teachers is increasingly important.

Lucy Gray
elemenous@gmail.com
links:
http://tinyurl.com/tedxtln

Beyond Buzzwords

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