The link above provides access to the LHS 2.0 information page. It outlines the work of a group of teachers and students at Lakewood High School whose goal is to use 21st century teaching tools in conjunction with research-based best practices for student learning. While I cannot, for student privacy reasons, allow full access to our class Moodle pages, the link above provides an overview of the program.
This project is teacher-developed and was most recently presented at the annual E-tech Ohio Conference in Columbus to many positive reviews. The program is also getting the attention of teachers and administrators from across the state as they look to find innovative ways to engage today's students. While the program may seem a bit tech-heavy, the grading system is as old as John Dewey.
I would appreciate public comment as we look to expand the program to the 10th grade next year. Perusing the page should take between ten and twenty minutes, and should provide everyone with a pretty fair understanding of our program.
This thread is NOT intended as part of the current levy discussions that can be found elsewhere on the LO Observation Deck. I would truly appreciate this discussion remaining separate from the others. I will try my best to answer any and all questions that you might have, while also trying my best to keep politics out of it. (I can at least ask, right? )
Sean thank you for posting this link. I took a little bit of time to look around and it looks like an interesting idea. I'm glad to see that LHS has something like this. Education is certainly changing and some of the technology used today is incredible.
I have been impressed with the use of technology in the schools thus far. My oldest, who will be heading off to LHS in the fall uses technology quite a bit in the majority of his classrooms. While he is not necessarily the type of student that needs to be encouraged to do well I can see how this type of learning environment might bring in the students that want something more than just the sit and read out of a book environment that does still exist in our schools today.
I am also thrilled to see use of technology because information is so readily available and books just can't always keep up. Don't take that the wrong way books are essential but often times books especially textbooks are quickly outdated.
How many students are currently being served in this program? And what is your ultimate goal for this program?
The general idea is pretty sound - but I wonder if it would work better if they didn't have to wait until 10th grade to focus on collaboration and project based work?
It seems like you would always be teaching the new students how to learn in this environment. You could guarantee the results if you were to start with the primary grades and "grow" your high school collaborators - instead of waiting till then to introduce these concepts.
I am all for introducing technology to support a good system. But if you introduce technology as a way to change the system you really just amplify the problems of the old system.
As a general question - what kinds of changes are being made to the pre-primary grades to modernize the learning experience? Sir Ken makes no mention of technology - but only that we have new understandings of how children learn and the world they will enter is not based on the industrial model that our schools were designed around.
Thank you for your interest and questions, Danielle.
The LHS 2.0 program currently involves approximately eighty 9th grade students. These students were placed into the program at random and without any prior knowledge of the program. None of the students are labelled as ESL or requiring special education services. For next year, we would like to give parents of our eighth grade students the ability to opt-in as well as provide special education services in an inclusion setting.
As for the ultimate goal of the program, I'd have to first say that our students' academic success means everything to us. If the students aren't learning what they need to be learning, and learning it well, than we're just putting on window dressing. So academic success comes first. That being said, there are a few ancillary goals that are worth mentioning. I'd love to see students become more adept at using the computer and internet beyond myspace, facebook, and youtube. We live in an age that is providing unprecedented access to information and other people. I would like to see our students become adept at using these resources to further academic growth, to increase intellectual curiosity, and to become participants in the world of ideas. I am also noticing that our students are becoming quite a bit more responsible and independent than I have seen in the past. Students are starting to understand what is required of them, how to meet those requirements, and what meeting those requirements have in common with future opportunities. Lastly, I'd also like to see a one-to-one laptop initiative funded by grant money. So that all of our students can have regular access to the internet both in school and at home. To this end, we are currently working on a few grant application opportunities.
I'll start by answering your last question about what is being done in the primary grades to modernize the learning experience. As a parent of a Grant Elementary 2nd grader, I was pretty surprised to know that my son is already being taught to use technology in his learning. He recently did a research project online and also surprised me by downloading his powerpoint presentation to our home computer. He also helped me with my smartboard when visiting my high school class one day. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, but I AM pretty impressed by it.
I also understand what you are saying about the benefits of a k-12 emphasis on using the technology to focus on collaboration and project-based work. I see our 9th grade program as a continuation of the work already being done at the k-8 level in this regard. Those new buildings are very well equipped to teach 21st century students, and from what I can see, all of our schools are using the technology in pretty interesting ways. In fact, I would say that the concepts that we are discussing (collaboration and project-based work) have always thrived at these pre-high school grade levels.
What our program aims to do differently is to address the issue that you identified by writing "if you introduce technology as a way to change the system you really just amplify the problems of the old system." I couldn't agree with this more. My angle is to ask what the technology can do that would support the best aspects of the old system. For example, John Dewey was a lead advocate for mastery grading in the early 1900s. But it really never caught on to the degree that makes sense. Why? As someone who has adopted this grading approach I can tell you the most simply answer, it's a TON of grading and it has always been nearly impossible to give each student the right help that would help them gain mastery based on their individual needs. It was a workflow problem. Now, however, with the use of an open-source, online, course-management system called Moodle (think WebCT and Blackboard if you've been to college recently) my students can safely and securely have regular individualized communication with me via instant messaging and digital feedback. This is helpful because it allows a kid with a question to ask it and get help without taking up the instruction time that is so valuable to the group as a whole. Grading has become a bit less cumbersome because I'm not carting papers anywhere, students get feedback the moment I'm done grading, and revision work is initiated by the student without me having to chase after them. If they are missing a handout, they simply download a replacement. If they forgot their notes, they can access them online. And if they want to closely track their grades and progress on their own, the gradebook no longer sits shrouded in secrecy on the teacher's desk. It is available to them 24/7 via Progressbook, our online gradebook. The key to any good learning, in or out of school, is to be able to clearly understand the expectations, the progress toward those expectations, and the ability to learn from mistakes made in pursuit of those expectations.
I hope this addressed your post, Vince. If it didn't please keep at me. I'll be checking back on Saturday morning. And now, off to the film festival!
(short background) My day job is information architecture and user research for web applications and marketing. I basically handle a couple hundred thousand dollars of technology decisions each year. I also have 3 kids - one pre school, one kindergarten.
I am not sure that modernization is the same as integration of new tech to support the old system. In what you describe - we have evolved and integrated technology to make the old system more efficient in order to be a better teacher, track the students progress, share more info etc.
The question i have is how are we able to modernize the system based on what we know now of how children attain knowledge and develop? What I see is more tech to support the current system of teacher+grades+subjects.
Do we still move kids around using a bell? Does the teacher still only have a batch of students for only 9 months? Do we still have competitive (ie GPA) assessment?
Despite what we know - we still protect certain parts of the old system and it will take progressive teachers like you to change it. It means gutting the old system completely and starting from scratch. The modern versions are all around us but until there is more educator/administrator support - the old regime will remain. All supported by wikis and cloud computing.
Kids are born collaborators and creatives. You could redesign the way they enter the education system to help preserve the precious resource that Sir Ken is identifying. The constant swapping of teachers - the ever growing population of students in individual buildings - and the heavier and heavier mandates and proficiency tests just push us back towards the industrial model.
I know it is an easy thing for me to sit here type these opinions in a text box while you are out there working 100% to do the best for the children that come your way. I know there are many teachers in Lakewood working to do the best they can despite pay and poor parent support and other constraints.
But in the end - I do see that technology is being developed and sold based on the current (old) system and that the 21st century classroom should maybe look more like the 19th century classroom but with technology supporting it:
- Same teacher for 2-3 years at a time - Multiple ages in the same class - Small simple school houses integrated into where we live - no competitive grading - just individual assessment - and of course - tablets!
Then bring the new technology to support that model.
Thanks for the background Vince. As I'm sure you can appreciate, it helps to have an understanding of someone's baseline knowledge of this application of technology to education.
That being said, I can definitely see that your question aims more to the transformative nature of the technology as opposed to the more assistive applications that do tend to be the focus of much of the technology integration in schools. While the assistive components of the technology (ease of student access to info, digital vs. actual ink, etc.) provide benefits to our students and teachers, the transformative use of technology is also an area in which I've invested plenty of thought.
The comparison to the 19th century schoolhouse model is very appropriate and falls in line with a few things I've been considering as we have gone through this first year of LHS 2.0. One facet of this that I keep bumping up against is the notion of what a "classroom" is and what "class time" is. With a 24/7 web presence, my digital "classroom" now extends well beyond the walls of the building that houses what is currently called my "classroom". The linear nature of traditional "class time" is being supplanted by the ubiquitous availability of my students to engage in "class time" whenever they can log on. The physical environment has, at least in one aspect, been diminished. However, I am a strong proponent of a different use of the class time within this model. In the LHS 2.0 program, we use a flexible-block class time format (see lhs 2.0 info page, go to the flexible-block schedule overview). We've switched the schedule to accomplish two goals at once. The first is that I meet with my students every other day instead of everyday, as is the case for most other classes at LHS. This is a response to the idea that my students are "attending" class online everyday, and that the daily 40 minute classes tended towards overkill. The second goal was to have our class meet for a longer class period (80 minutes). This allows for a depth over breadth paradigm that I feel is essential to facilitate more meaningful class discussions and use of class time. Would I ever want to shift to an entirely online classroom? No. Studies are beginning to show that the blended model of instruction far surpasses a strictly online environment. While the social nature of our online environment is great, our students also benefit from face-to-face co-operative learning and a hands-on approach in the physical classroom.
Your post also suggested the idea of having students of various ages in the same classroom. This has obvious academic merits (individualization) AND drawbacks (social and physical maturity). I lean more towards the idea of keeping the age ranges close (ex. teaching "Catcher in the Rye". Appropriate for 10th graders, probably not for 6th graders). But differentiating based on each student's individual starting point. You hit it on the head when mentioning the abolition of competitive grading in favor of a model that measures individual assessment based on clear learning objectives and standards (national standards? I'm in favor of using them). The technology is a huge help in this endeavor, as there is a clear distinction between the kind of teaching that I do in-person (whole group, general concepts, over-arching themes, content, and ideas) and the kind of teaching I can do online (one-to-one, differentiated based on student ability, interest, and long/short term goals). Moodle is transformative in that it facilitates my ability to be BOTH kinds of teacher, when previously I had to choose one method on any given day.
And lastly , tablets! As mentioned before, we are currently writing a grant proposal that would provide one-year of professional development in these technologies and one-to-one computing in the second year of the grant. Obviously, tablets have caught my eye. Now, if only that iPad had a usb port!
Thanks again for your interest, Vince. I look forward to continuing the conversation and learning from your perspective.
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