The countdown is now 56 days until beginning my new "gig"" as a global nomad. Many of my co-travelers prefer the term "digital nomad", but as one who lived through the overextended comparisons between digital natives and digital immigrants, I prefer my nomadic life to be around the world, not around devices. Nonetheless, I promised friends and family that I would blog about my experience.
And so. . . here it goes!
Patagonia 2023
This blog's history shows the failed attempts at blogging in the past. My students and nieces/nephews tell me the best venue would be TikTok. My sister-in-law says not to worry about how I look in the video and “just do it”. Yet there’s the writing aspect that merits my attention.
In spite of great coaching from my tech mentor, Jeff Utecht, writing and research guidance from my first chair, Dr. Cheryl Keen, and the simple joy I have always found when weaving a story, I seldom write. My eagerness to further my doctoral studies around global citizenship faltered not at the inquiry or research level - especially in the glorious Library of Congress reading room - but at the blank-page syndrome of writing.
In my admonition to my niece that she should expand her gift of prose to a blog, I realized I needed to lead by example, as did the strong women who helped to mold my life.
It's been too long. There is so much unrest, I am not sure what to say.
However, until I finish today's class assignments, I'll let the lyrics from a Melissa Manchester song rekindle my story - and tell my age! I own the rights to nothing but the memories from both:
When studying acting at the University of Michigan, this was the phrase our directors would use to encourage us to keep it simple, keep it real: Less is More.
I remembered this when considering Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's "data-driven" incentive to lengthen the academic day and year. This strategy is based on an analysis/comparison of U.S. education to international education, particuarly in a world where U.S. students will be "competing" for college admission and jobs with students from around the world,. However, I fully understand why this idea is met with opposition without deep and meaningful change in the way we do the business of education.
Merely lengthening the academic day won't solve the problem. That could just produce more of the same with shorter vacations. I would also question the merit of universally lengthening the school day in those districts or schools where students are achieving well above the expected "average"? Or why lengthen it in states that make Kindergarten optional?
If workers can earn vacation time for hours completed at work, why can't successful students earn time off for successfully completing academic expectations? Isn't that what many of us called Senior Year?
Teachers and principals will know a district is serious about transforming schools into professional learning communities only when they are given the time they need to handle the complexity of that task. (pg.111)
DuFour's perspective of school days includes embedded learning for teachers and administrators rather than paltry add-ons to fulfill external expectations.
If Secretary Duncan embraces President Obama's goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, it would make sense that the targeted efforts would focus on early childhood and primary education programs, those first graders and early graduates of the year 2020. It brings to mind the words of Rogers and Hammerstein to "start at the very beginning".
However, to effectively impact their education, a stronger focus needs to be placed on the learning of those who teach them. Seth Godin, in his book, Tribes: We Need YOU to Lead Us would seem to proffer that we can start (continue?) movements to reform education by
Transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change;
Providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications; and
Leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members
The question then is, who will lead this tribe? Do we wait for the Secretary of Education to tell us what to do? Or do we support those impassioned educators with whom I've had the privilege of working, removing the gatekeepers of traditional unionism that enable rather than reform the feeble? What about voting in those Board of Director members who seek to reward innovation rather than worry about who's in charge?
I think NCLB has proven that changes from on high will not reform education. It has to be a grassroots, teacher and principal level of passion to do something wonderful in education, and it has to be now, because, as Godin says,
Life's way too short to make mediocre stuff. . .defending mediocrity is exhausting (pg 32).
In final preparations for the Near East South Asia's Educator's Conference, I knew I wanted to do something I've never done before. I am so over PowerPoint, even on an interactive white board.
I remembered Amanda's "sexy" presentation courtesy of twitter-buddy DearLibrariAnn. I knew a good deal of the final touches could be done on the 21 hour flight to Cairo, and was quite pumped to see that Prezi.com offered a downloadable version. I know Delta offers inflight WiFi, but I want everything ready to go when I hit the ground and reconnect with my husband.
Interestingly enough, my twitter world was abuzz as colleagues attended the EARCOS Teachers' Conference in Borneo AND Dave Warlick was presenting in his normal integrated, multi-techno function. I wasn't streamed in, but everyone was raving about his prezi presentation at the same time I was working with this startup to get my access code.
It's in beta testing, but I've worked with an internet-based software company long enough to know that a good thing is a good thing! Period!
I let Prezi know that they were getting a lot of love in twitter.
Encouraged a twitter search of "dwarlick" to see the PR he was giving their "startup".
Suddenly, the line went quiet, the call had an urgency to end, and my log-in seemed to be an issue of the distant past. To Patrick's credit, everything was launched and good to go, but I could see that their philosophy of accepting those with lots of cash or lots of influence was right on.
So all those rankings in social media mean something afterall, as my tech mentor Jeff Utecht shared over three years ago! It was a passing moment, but made me vastly aware of how interconnected everything is - the fact that I could simultaneously work, follow conference chatter in Borneo, and be whelmed by Dave Warlick in Saskatoon at an IT Summit just made me feel infintiely finite.
And connected. screenshots from Tweetdeck and Prezi.com Photo from takuya miyamoto's flickr
I think of Seven (8) Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, the top 10 List of David Letterman, the eight Beatitudes, even the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by the same author and wonder why does 17 in numbering the essential qualities of a team player strike me as an odd number?
It is an odd number. It's the first prime number after lucky 13. A team can be five on the court or 9 on the field.
But Seventeen?
And then I thought of leadership from within - being a part of a team while being the one, de facto or de jure, who leads the team. While integral to the teams success, culture, image, and effectiveness, to leaders sometimes have to stand alone, a separate number apart from that perfect square, that 2- squared-squared?
And what if the challenge is to lead great leaders? John Maxwell advises that essential team players are:
Adaptabile
Collaborative
Committed
Communicative
Competent
Dependable
Disciplined
Enlarging
Enthusiastic
Intentional
Mission Conscious
Prepared
Relational
Self-Improving
Selfless
Solution Oriented
Tenacious
That's a long laundry list of desirable characteristics. Number 11 stands in the forefront of my mind, the need not only to know and embrace the organization's mission, but one's personal mission with many opportunities for reflection.
So how does one adapt to the high demand for competency in a solution-oriented, tenacious field?
That's what my husband told me one of the million times he tried (successfully) to lure me from the ego-centric performing arts to education. Even when longing for center stage, I still found a certain fulfillment in knowing I was playing a part in preparing the next generation for this game called Life. Before I go on, I must fully disclose that I'm a consultant with Rubicon Atlas. We found each other when, in my 12 year of teaching, my school adopted Atlas as a curriculum management software. I was excited to see Will Richardson's post about expanding the concept of what constitutes a teacher. Further inspiration came when reading One School of Thought which celebrates bringing the excellence in teaching outside of the classroom. After the privilege of reading my CEO's marginal notes in Rick DuFoursProfessional Learning Communities at Work. With the establishment of our online Professional Learning Communities (surprisingly, at no additional cost) and the Rubicon Exemplar System (again, at no additional cost), I couldn't help but feel that the mission was to connect educators, eliminate the silos, and
encourage and support the best and brightest teachers to come out of the closet and gain from the experience of teaching to a wide audience.
Inspiration is a good thing at the close of a solar/ceasarian calendar year.
I typically receive a good dose of inspiration from Dr. Scott McLeod; this is particularly the case when he is encouraging readers to be wary of outside consultants. This is what I do for a living, and his thoughtful reflection led me inspired me to reflect on my ethics, even if not in his echelon of public speaking nor a member of the National Speakers Association.
Can I assert that I have pledged myself to:
honesty and integrity
pursue my profession and education to the end that service to my clients shall always be maintained at the highest level
to seek and maintain equitable honorable, and cooperative association with fellow members . . . of my business and professional life
I need a few days to mull it over for a truly accurate self-reflection. I also look forward to redefining my personal mission statement to make sure all is where it should be for 2009. Happy New Year. God bless us, one and all
I thought I'd share some of "the places I've visited" as my blog post. Mind you, this isn't all of them, as they emerged from a list of prompts. I remember summer vacations of youth, in the back of the station wagon headed to fulfill a mother's dream to visit all 50 U.S. states. We nearly made it; it was a job in Alaska that took me to a conference in Hawaii where I fulfilled the destiny of this legacy.
Now, I'm blessed to travel the world as part of my job. After a recent 8-week tour I returned to Portland, not surprised that it is still not home without my husband there! When reuniting with friend & career coach Marti, she shared that she would be curious to see my virtual map. I updated this through my facebook page, inspired by friend Amanda's really full map and hoping mine would begin to compare.
The results are below, with miles to go before I sleep . . .
Has it really been nearly three months since my last blog post?
I have absolved myself from guilt - even with a new purpose in September to blog more regularly. I have been at my Portland base 10 days since September 9th - only two of those were non-consecutive weekend days.
I am melded to my laptop, so it's not a matter of being removed from the digital community. However, since my last blog post, I feel as though, perhaps in a dream:
The U.S. elected a President who has the potential to inspire beyond what Kennedy or King did.
The blogosphere shriveled up and went inactive - or maybe I just stopped reading my RSS feeds?
Twitter slowed down - or maybe I couldn't stomach reading all the racist comments in the public twitville after McCain conceded
I realized there were other priorities in my job demanding immediate focus beyond making sure we were present in web 2.0-ville.
Or perhaps, it is as my friend Jeff said:
I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I just think the landscape of what blogging is, is changing.
What brought me back?
I logged into Twitter, and my friend Andy Torris had a link to his post. I wanted to comment on his post but became instantly ashamed when it asked for my website. I decided if I was going to comment and list my blog, I darn sure better have something recent. I read Jeff's post to see where his thoughts had been lately - even though I was a Skype guest with his Grade 5 class as they were creating audiobooks for kindergartners.
I was also pulled back by Sanjana of AS Bombay's way of introducing first and second graders to the world of blogging . . . and I just *had* to start following @dearlibrariAnn once we met ftf after she starting following me from a mutual friend - @adecardy's twits.
I fell asleep and the world seemed to change. Then I woke up and realized I can still jump on the train and ride to my heart's content.
Let's do away with that phrase "The train is coming - either get on board or get left behind". There is nothing wrong with stopping to smell the roses and trusting there'll be another train coming through the station soon - that's why the station was built!
Early Sunday morning, I was led to join a SecondLife pre-conference and was enjoying the conversation and chats until I became irritated by the sweeping generalizations regarding what teachers will and will not do to propel, no support their students in this century. (Aside - eight years in, we can stop projecting what 21st Century learning should look like and start reflecting on what it really is).
As an educational consultant supporting both U.S. and international schools, I admit I am occasionally frustrated with educators who aren't familiar with what one might consider as the basics of computer/network navigation. However, upon realization of missing skills or understanding, it then becomes my responsibility to maximize the teachable moment, not to critcize them for what they don't know they don't know! I marvel how some will readily scaffold learning experiences and adapt instructional practices for students but become aghast at the prospect of doing so for adult learners.
As I mention what "some will readily do", I can't help but arrogantly wonder if my Quit It! reply was referenced when Scott McLeod questioned "some " as a rebuttal to the following:
Teachers aren’t integrating digital technologies into their instruction on a regular basis.
Let's continously facilitate teacher learning on how to do so. Let's introduce them to tools so accessible and so exciting that they continue the exploration on their own, even if it means staying up until 1:00 AM to own them well enough to use them!
The administrators who are in charge of leading their school organizations into the information age don’t really understand the information age.
Let's meet them where they are in the midst of multiple pressures and initiatives (mandates!) and provide them with enough exemplar IT/Ed Tech plans and dialogs until they clearly see the customized vision for their school. Let's encourage/lead them to meet in digital spaces and engage them in conversations about systemic changes that are most meaningful to them right now. Let's hyperlink them to blogs and wikis until they are so addicted to their personal learning network, their days aren't complete until their feeder is empty.
Schools aren’t providing the types of learning experiences necessary to prepare students to be 21st century citizens and workers.
Is the community aware of what it expects from its schools? Does it support new initiatives and take responsibility for leading rather than supressing-by-challenging innovation?
I would assert that among the schools I'm entitled to work with and visit, for every one where the above statements might be true, I can point to three others where they couldn't be more inaccurate. I can identify small class movements within a seemingly stagnant school which are aggressively transforming educational practices to reflect 21st Century education using embedded technology as a tool to enhance relevant content and strong instructional practices. I would rather highlight this classroom and teacher than focusing on the less in-tuned one.
The microtrends happening in pockets of these "failing" schools, according to Mark Penn, can be enough to spark a social movement or produce political change.
I plead guilty to using "some" or "many" to rebut what I view as teacher-bashing over-generalizations. Let me justify the reminder that what is true for some or many is rarely true for: this child of the 1960's riots and revolutionary changes, still trembles with angst when I hear sweeping generalizations applied to groups. Please, judge me on the content of my classroom, not the "color" of my school system. Hearing "this school" or "these past six schools I visited" seems a more appropriate and accurate reflection of educational systemic assessments than a broad brush stroke which obliterates the intricate details of a work-in-progress.
If we who are educators denigrate our own profession or professionals, how can we expect others to hold it in the esteem due an occupation that directly impacts children?
. . .and cue soundtrack for this musical called "life":
I took advantage of the holiday weekend to catch up on my RSS feeds. How desperately I need to get on a schedule to do this regularly, but 10 days in four Asian countries followed by 7 days on the west coast and ending with 8 days in India is enough to help me feel justified for irregularities in my rituals.
Irrespective of my personal wars, Janet Lee Johnson has been absolutely inspiring over the past few weeks! I enjoy following her on twitter and seeing the world of public relations and interconnectivity through her eyes, but it was downright comforting to hear her echo my friend and former colleague, Jeff Utecht, regarding strategies for increasing blog visibility. One of her recommendations rang particularly familiar: the trackback to the Technorati Profile as an absolute must.
So now I must fill out another profile. Call me lazy, but it will temporarily be a cut-and-paste from the presenter bio for an upcoming workshop at the Near East South Asia (NESA) conference in Amman, Jordan. I have joined so many networks, filled out so many profiles, and attached so many pictures, I feel as though I just came from a wine and cheese in a new position.
(image from NESA Center Gallery - Spring Educators' Conference)
I'm not complaining. I'm thankful that web 2.0 matches what Debbie Silva would call my ADD-OS personality (Attention Deficit Disor . . . . OOOOOH! SPARKLIES!!!). I can flit and float from network to network, finding what this still-creative mind craves for the moment.
Yet I wonder if I'm ready to make the bold commitment. Do I want a following on my blog (do I have one and not know it? Gotta upload that new Google gadget!). Most importantly: do I want to make the commitment to be an ongoing part of very meaningful conversations that, when done at the level of Janet's or Jeff's or my friend Andy's can inspire thought and excellence.
Yes. I'm ready. To learn. Yes, I'm ready, to love.
To fall into the blog To keep up with the blog To commit to the blog Right now.
If you can name the tune from which those lyrics are borrowed/tweaked, than your as much of a dinosaur as I am.
Let's keep it real: That which doesn't kill me will only make me stronger. Crank it up, y'all!
Summer vacation is over in International Education. At the office, we might as well install a revolving door to accommodate the upcoming travels of me and my colleagues. I joking bid a co-consultant goodbye with a hope to see her in September as we integrate our Curriculum Mapping system trainings into the start of the academic year.
Recently, have been deeply inspired by an Asian International School so closely wedded to excellence, they purchased our tool. What was inspiring is that curriculum mapping was not used to create change in their school or lead toward improvement, but because the practices they have already established needed what my firm offers to maximize their pre-scheduled time focused on designing and refining their curriculum.
Although I desperately miss my husband, as my "home base" and travels currently require that we live apart, I love my job, which provides me the opportunities to travel (on this trip) to places like Malaysia, the Phillipines, Singapore and Taiwan. I am tickled to goose-bump level to see people more excited than me about designing curriculum that will improve student learning.
The seasons of my life have changed from a classroom to consulting full time. As I learned of the need to be an educational teacher-leader to become the change I wanted to see in education, I am now learning that I need to persevere as a consulting leader to become the change that others need to see in our field. I'm excited by the podcasts we're producing and the way our borders are reaching out to share best practices at the speed of change, but with change happening so quickly, how will we keep up? I know many of you have seen this video countless times, but it reminds me, humbly, how rapidly our world changes.
I still marvel that I've accumulated more miles this year an educational consultant (this after 13 years in k-12 education and three as an adjunct college lecturer/performing artist) than all of my traveling years as an international educator.
Usually, I put the headphones on, tune out the world, and focus on preparations for/follow-up from the school I've gone to visit. This usually devolves into mind-numbing airline entertainment or a fast movie/TV series on the laptop or ipod. This vacation trip to Phoenix was different - my aisle mate was otherwise occupied, but once the conversation began, I didn't want to "tune out".
He too is an educator at a charter school in Phoenix. His passion for the profession was inspiring and reminded me of the good old days. However, it was his inquiry into my job teaching internationally that inspired this blog.
What started as a comment to Andy Torris' blog turned into a post of its own. Because I know this educational leader values the opinions of others, I left it there, in the comments, but wanted to share the context with you.
“The U.S. Department of Commerce ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness. Education ranked was ranked 55- the lowest. Behind coal-mining.”
Before we completely fault educators, I'd like to make a comparison between three industries in which I worked:
Higher Education: Resident Director at a major research institution - provided with a desktop computer and access to the "BBS" (OK, so I'm a dinosaur!)
Educator: Given the option of a low-interest loan in a payroll deduction to purchase my own personal computer. The loan amount had limits.
Consulting Firm: Provided with a laptop computer and international mobile phone upon arrival (latest bells and whistles). The expectations of my expected use of technology both during and outside of work hours were clear by the resources provided. Most schools wouldn't expect a teacher to walk into a room without text books (hopefully this is changing) and a teacher's manual to accompany them. We won't even name those schools whose provision of technological resources are so scarce that teachers use their own money to purchase digital projectors. If educators are truly expected to embed technology into instruction and learning, give them the tools - not just available in the classroom - that they need to do so.
There have been few changes to the expectation that educators do more with less, particularly in US public education. School calendars, expected outcomes, scheduling, even teacher training and professional development are still shaped by the industrial model of education. The changes to adapt to 21st Century learners will be implemented by educators but the really metamorphosis is at an institutional level, most critical at institutions of teacher preparation and certification.
Main point: provide educational professionals with the tools of their dynamic trade. Outside of photosynthesis and those things created to imitate the process, very little happens by osmosis.
A strategic planning consultant asked a reticent group to introduce themselves, sharing the last book they read or the last original thought the remembered having. We all chose books.
An entertaining and thought provoking video, but as a former music educator - in a state-run school (since we have no "national education system in the U.S.), I respectfully disagree.
We need to stop beating up our educational system. I have had a rich life - rich in wonderfully creative experiences and opportunities, and guess what? I am a full-blown product of public education! My 3rd grade teacher nurtured my creativity in poetry while Ms. Strozier nurtured my love of instrumental music and Ms. Robinson gave me chances to sing. As I travel to different schools, I see so many loving and dedicated educators just like the teachers I have. Yet we tend to focus more on what' missing than what is or what could be.
We blame the educational system for our human shortcomings. Schools can nurture all the
creativity they want, but if parents tell kids to "cut that racket out" once they get home or farm them out to activities that keep them too tired to find the time to create, the morning has been nearly nullified.
No matter what the educational system may have been "designed" to produce, it is powered by individuals. In the paraphrased words of a former administrator, "Forget the curriculum - teach these kids to enjoy their time making music with you".
I had discovered the thrill of blogging while taking Jeff's class. Then work realities hit, and blogging just wasn't a "priority" anymore. But in this beautifully interconnected universe, I could no longer bear a most recent post touting my my mom's new Christmas Nano. As I prepare for my first ASCD convention, I wonder what lies ahead for curriculum and curriculum mapping. I can't deny that technological advances make our lives more accessible to more people and information more accessible to us, but accessibility doesn't change the substance of our needs or needed skills.
Working with educators rather than students provides many opportunities for questioning the path of education. Nonetheless, our technology shouldn't dictate the content of what we teach; it is merely a tool to accelerate our discovery learning.
Wiggins and McTighe use etymology in understanding curriculum - as the course to be run, given a desired endpoint. Until there are near-metaphysical changes in our destination (i.e., an academic degree leading to a job/career to support exisitence on earth), there will not be lasting change in the preparation toward this end - commonly known as k-12 education.
Richard Bach's biplane view of life offers winding roads filled with alternatives. He offers that Learning is finding out what you already know. Education should not restrict the path that students use in this discovery, but they need an aerial view of where the "course to run" is leading them
It is misleading, no matter how many different jobs a 21st Century student may face, to coax our students into believing that mastery of the traditional core subjects is anything other than necessary. How we lead them to discover those fundamentals can eternally morph, but without the possession of the knowledge and skills essential in a math, science, language, and arts education - traditional long before the industrial age - remains essential.
My mother was ecstatic about her iPodNano-video. I felt cheap for not getting her the touch screen!
My mother-in-law was not. She wasn't sure it was compatible with her wmv books on tape and didn't want to take the time for me to show her how to import. It did take her over a year to take her new computer out of the box. . .
My husband is home from Saudi. We've been together for 10 straight days with another week to come!
Mom's house is wireless. One trip to Best Buy, and my husband and I are emailing URL's for "you gotta see this" things
I bonded with my 16 mo. old nephew. He cuddles with me, and sits on my lap for fingerplay songs.
One niece added me to her facebook account. Two others accepted my request. We're planning a girls' weekend in NYC for 2008.
I'm increasingly aware of what an integrated part of our lives modern technology and the internet are. What prohibits it from being an embedded part of curriculum design, teaching, and learning?
I also wonder what goals I should set for the next year. A pep talk from a brother-in-law focused me toward Plato's Republic; I turned him toward Moore's Utopia. I only want to make the world a better place.
Wow. I finally gained access to second life by reverting back to my Windows XP system and gaming computer with the ATI video card recommended. Irony is that my husband bought this 17" computer for me to play The Sims2 when my older laptop was ready for the rubbish.
I browsed around the University of Cincinnati site, as my Professor shared that my soon-t0-be Alma Mater was developing a "presence" there.
I was led to an open-source research sharing by Boise State University. This led me to sloodle and a wealth of information about building "social persistence" in virtual learning communities.
Now I'm at the in-laws, basking in holiday glow, and anxious to explore more. Did I mention my nieces and I are planning our trip to NYC via facebook? In a six hour visit, I walked through their world of youtube videos, xbox, Wii, and art - so different from the holidays of my youth where batteries are replaced with SD disks and the college novice brags about her prowess in getting required courses by pre-saving registration online.
And I'm proud that I use my blog to track information I may want at a later date. At least I'll know where my links are, if I can't keep up with the nieces and nephews. At least they needed me to help assemble the airhockey table that held their interest for two full games. . .
How do I return the gift of virtual knowledge to a friend who shares so freely?
What started as a substitution course turned into a new way of viewing the possibilities of the web in instruction. Enjoying the embedding of technology doesn’t begin to scratch the surface. I’m living in a different world which will is rapidly becoming the only reality current students know. My mind swims, I can’t keep up with my RSS feeds, answering a question usually leaves me with ten windows or tabs open forgetting the original source of inquiry. In this world, we still expect students to sit in desks, listening to lectures and doing writing assignments? Do we expect teachers and staff members to do the same as we train them to think as students think?
The possibilities, even in professional development for educators are endless. Podcasts, Second Life, Wikis are just a few of the tools available. It was most meaningful in this course not to just learn about them, but to be responsible for creating them. The most difficult was reading about these possibilities. At least I’ve discovered that what used to be ADD is now just connected learning.
My regret was not assuming a more regular pace through the course. The typical final cramming didn’t afford the best understanding of blogs. For instance, during the last week, I discovered ways to edit code that would have customized my blogger template. Had I done the challenging podcasting assignment earlier, I would have – scratch that - might have come across the tutorial blog that links to customizing other features. I say might, because one thing this course has reinforced is how difficult it can be to retrace research steps. That is the value of a blog – linking to the pages at the time of thought so that they’re only a few clicks away.
As I was writing my blog on Wikis, I thought it might have been fun to collaborate with classmates on a project, but my timing probably would have been the weakest link. It was clever to begin the course by becoming course editors through the WetPaint wiki; at least I understand how it works. Setting it up for others will be a larger challenge.
I'm pumped that my Senior Partner extended an invitation to discuss ideas for the coming year. He has demonstrated a desire not only to keep apace with Web 2.0, but to revolutionize the way we do business. I would enjoy using these tools to teach teachers, to facilitate discussions about learning, and incorporate it into the processes attached to mapping.
I have the fondest memories of both of my grandfathers. With each, I was afforded the opportunity for meaningful time alone with them. Every animal, every radio program, every person that walked past the porch became a lesson, usually based on a life experience to help me avoid some of the crueler pitfalls in life. I cherish our one on one time. It had to be the most meaningful lessons, immersed in our mutual love for eachother.
What does this have to do with one laptop per child, or other one-to-one learning environments? Let me play a paternal grandfather role and share a story:
When I was in Grade 8 in the Detroit Public School system, we had to share books with a partner during class. Taking them home for continued reading or further investigation involved a rather tedioius check out process that meant precious time away from the seven minutes allotted to see friends and to make it on time to the next class. I shared a microscope with eight other lab table partners and they came out so rarely, there wasn't a direct connection to labs and science.
When I transferred to the suburbs, the first thing I received was a stack of books - checked out to me for the entire year. I was assigned a microscope and my own personal lab station. We were always cutting things, picking things and looking at them in microscopes, and, when the teacher wasn't looking, creating our own little science experiments. We worked in diads and triads in our home ec kitchenettes complete with its own fridge, stove, and cupboard space. All of a sudden, there was a value placed on education by what was available to each individual, and I started taking it seriously. I was "tracked" as a low performing student upon arrival, but by the time I was in the ninth grade, my Biology teacher pulled me into the hall and shared that someone had made an awful mistake putting me in her class and that she would make sure that I was "in the right classes" by the new quarter.
One-to-one supplies. One-teacher to one-student communication. Why should it be any different for the tools of modern education? What message do we send students when there aren't enough computers (or labs) to do the projects or research needed?
