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Leaping the Curve
by Elizabeth Helfant

As the year winds down, we are wrapping up loose ends and preparing for next year. What things need to change? What things need to be modified? What things need to be added? The questions are simple, the answers - not so much!

What things need to change or be re-imagined?

We already know that we have to redesign ALL of our curriculum for the 2010-2011 school year when we change the schedule and move to trimesters. It isn’t really the change to trimesters that is driving the changes in curriculum. The change in curriculum is being driven by recognition that the tablets we put in students’ hands really were personal learning environments that opened up possibilities, possibilities that required a different way of doing things. Sketchpad or Geogebra activities that previously required lab time, can now be done as homework and can be used more frequently. Browser based whiteboards, skype, and the wide array of chat tools allow students to interact and learn in virtual spaces after school hours- regardless of whether a teacher chooses to join them or not. Student share a whiteboard space to show each other how to do problems. Wikis, google docs, and share OneNote notebooks have increased opportunities for collaboration and building knowledge collectively. As we have gotten better at collaboration, we have increased our use of project based learning and have gotten more comfortable with students having different learning experiences and tasks. The Sudan elective produced a documentary and raised money to support charities that helped Sudanese refugees because the students assumed different roles in the class. Their video speaks for itself as to whether it was a worthwhile endeavor. Students in US History divided up history topics and collectively wrote a graphic novel survey of US History that will be published on lulu.com. Students in BRIC Nations developed a wikibook. Business as usual it is not, nor should it be.

Change is in the air as well it should be. Consider this video for a moment.

 

While change is never easy, it is often necessary. My job, and the job of early adopters, is to make the discomfort area as small as possible.

My job is to help others understand that the path to success might be different then the one they are on. I need to support those embracing change and help them understand that while there will be a difficult piece to conquer (a pancake to pour), that is preferable to the alternative which is obsolescence.

What things must be modified or tweaked?

First up for us is our understanding of literacy. With no desire to engage in a semantics debate,  I offer the opinion that literacy and the skill set students need to graduate with today has changed and schools must be responsive to this fact. Students still need reading, writing and arithmetic but they need much more. My tech committee is working hard to define what the skill set our students should graduate with is. Our goal is to articulate that skillset so that it can become the basis of our internal standards or benchmarks by which we measure our success.

The second area of change is our use of class time. Class does not need to be reserved for delivering content or for discussion. This year we made great strides in using DyKnow to modify in class discussions and lectures. Sharing screens and freeing students from the task of copying copious volume of notes allowed them to concentrate on the concepts being addressed and to master those more efficiently. The interactive nature of DyKnow made it impossible for students to opt out of class time. The formative assessment tools made it easy for the teacher to monitor student progress during class. But the shift can be much bigger than that. New Web 2.0 tools allow discussion to happen in virtual spaces and to include others from distant locations. Videos are easily made and posted and interactive content can be developed so that new material can be effectively delivered via the web. Class time can be used to delve more deeply into student ideas and to expand on what they are learning outside of class.

The third area that we need to modify is in the realm of assessment. If curriculum is redone in a way that utilizes project based and inquiry driven learning, assessment must change if it is to accurately measure student skills and understandings. Many of the web 2.0 tools allow us to get a window into the learning process- to see student work as it is created and to offer feedback on that work. Web 2.0 offers us a toolset that facilitates student reflection on their own learning. We need to leverage those tools and also to begin to question the roll of traditional assessment devices. Do secondary students really need an exam at the end of every semester? Doesn’t the summative exam often dictate what students need to engage with and absolves them of the need to have and nurture individual curiosity? If we care about learning, we need to monitor and measure learning.

What things need to be added?

Our institutional tool kit needs a couple of additions. We need a medium to allow us to meet virtually. We are increasingly finding opportunities to put our students in contact with experts or other students. We need a virtual classroom. There are free tools that we have used like DimDim and a Skype and Mikogo combination to allow us to share desktops and applications. We are looking to expand our toolkit in two ways. We will add Wimba Classroom to meet our growing demand for virtual interaction. We are also adding an Opensim installation to begin to explore virtual worlds as a place to meet and as a place to build simulations and learning experiences.

Our third addition will be the introduction of an assessment portfolio or a performance based assessment tool. We’ve chosen Chalk and Wire for this because of the way it ties student tasks to a clearly defined assessment device that is in turn tied to institutional standards like those we are working on to define the new student skill set. The tool provides spaces for student reflection and for assessors, and assessors might include more than the classroom teacher, to provide feedback. The feedback is reported back to the student in graphical format that allows them to see a visual of their progress. Teachers can pull data across all their students and easily see the progress that is being made not only in their class but institutionally. The reporting structure allows the institution to measure progress against institutional goals and standards.

The ultimate goal is to provide our students with a solid education that engages and prepares them for their world. This video does a nice job exploring what that might look like. It asks, "Why would you ever get on a train again?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScUq7iZk9rQ

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Helfant is the Upper School Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Mary Institute Country Day School, a JK-12 institution embarking on a 1:1 adventure. using Tablet PCs and DyKnow.