Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
The Flattening of the educational world
Reading Friedman's book, I've come to see many of the flatteners making their way into the K-12 educational realm. Our public schools are using wikis, blogs, skype, and other knowledge sharing resources to broaden the classroom. We have schools who communicate with scientists working at Duke University in a collaborative program called TASC (Teachers and Scientists Collaborating) Our students are learning science through inquiry based science kits that were co-developed by teachers and scientists. Students carry on online discussions with these practicing scientists as they work through the scientific process.
Another example of flattening happening at the K-12 level is by job alike meetings through Skype or virtual classrooms. We have itinerate teachers knowledge sharing with other itinerates that are stationed in other areas of the district. This knowledge sharing helps broaden each person's resources and ideas while providing a support group.
The educational process is flattening with the options of virtual field trips, collaborative online discussions, etc but the face to face interaction is not something that can be automated, simulated or replicated with the same results using technology. Technology serves as a supplement.
At present, our district has moved to real time feedback software such as Senteos. These are handheld devises that each student has which interface with interactive whiteboards in the classrooms. Teachers can ask students questions and they can answer on their Senteos. The results are immediately posted on the whiteboard for instant feedback. Graphs and charts can be quickly generated to give the teacher info on which students need further help. The students don't know who is answering what so their is no threat to them. The feedback is associated to a number in the handhelds that the teacher can correlate to the students.
We are also utilizing handheld palm devices to do K-2 literacy and math assessments. This move has allowed us to move from a paper assessment to a digital one which again provides instant data sorting capabilities and helps generate possible strategies to use with individual students based upon their performance.
Options abound as schools begin to understand the possibilities of a flat world, but the teacher is not a commodity that can be outsourced, insourced, offshored, or supply chained.
Another example of flattening happening at the K-12 level is by job alike meetings through Skype or virtual classrooms. We have itinerate teachers knowledge sharing with other itinerates that are stationed in other areas of the district. This knowledge sharing helps broaden each person's resources and ideas while providing a support group.
The educational process is flattening with the options of virtual field trips, collaborative online discussions, etc but the face to face interaction is not something that can be automated, simulated or replicated with the same results using technology. Technology serves as a supplement.
At present, our district has moved to real time feedback software such as Senteos. These are handheld devises that each student has which interface with interactive whiteboards in the classrooms. Teachers can ask students questions and they can answer on their Senteos. The results are immediately posted on the whiteboard for instant feedback. Graphs and charts can be quickly generated to give the teacher info on which students need further help. The students don't know who is answering what so their is no threat to them. The feedback is associated to a number in the handhelds that the teacher can correlate to the students.
We are also utilizing handheld palm devices to do K-2 literacy and math assessments. This move has allowed us to move from a paper assessment to a digital one which again provides instant data sorting capabilities and helps generate possible strategies to use with individual students based upon their performance.
Options abound as schools begin to understand the possibilities of a flat world, but the teacher is not a commodity that can be outsourced, insourced, offshored, or supply chained.
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