"21st Century Learning" Interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (School 2.0, Part 1)

Last week I interviewed Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, focusing on what Sheryl calls "21st Century Learning." Sheryl is fast-paced, energetic, and devoted--all of which really come through in this hour-long interview, and make for very interesting listening.

Show notes:

• Sheryl is a technology and education consultant and adjunct instructor in the School of Education at The College of William and Mary, and she was one of the organizers of the recent K12 Online Conference.
  
• Right now, Sheryl believes, we are in a place where computing in the classroom is really going to take off.
• She feels that it is a moral responsibility of teacher-leaders in the school to figure out how to access the tools of the web and help students to learn to use them in a safe environment. (Again, I'm fascinated with the contrast of Larry Cuban's views here, and also with the apparent difficulties that grass-roots technology efforts face in school decision-making.)
• "You can't give away what you don't own." Until school administrators are experiencing the benefits of the new technologies, there cannot be more widespread adoption of them. (This touches on the point above.)
  
• The students of today don't have a choice as to whether or not they will master the skills of the read/write web (and being collaborative and self-driven)--if they don't, they will be left behind in the work world.
• The magic of Web 2.0 in schools is individual growth toward the sense of being "self-actualized:" students can be transformed by being able to write things that others are interested in reading, and by being able to collaborate with others.
• The "Golden Question" right now is: can tie these new tools to student achievement? She believes it they can be, but it's very hard to measure because of all the other variables.
  
• Sheryl points out the need for balance: when you use any pervasive educational strategy (not just the new computer technologies), you need to make sure that there is a marriage between the passion that is generated with a rigorous education. This should be a deepening of learning, and be challenging. "Rigor and passion."
  
• Many students are going to be coming to school already well versed in the read/write or participatory web. Her experience has been that they are often motivated learners from these experiences.
  
• Sheryl talks about moving from the "Information Age" to the "Age of Conceptualization." I'm not sure I know what the "Age of Conceptualization" is...
• The most gifted students are good at the way school is played right now, and they can have the hardest time adjusting to a learning environment that is cooperative and self-directed. It is the kids who have struggled previously that really benefit the most by being able to use these technologies. (This goes along with Sheryl's desire to bring computing resources to homeless youth, and her belief in how important this will be for them. See below.)
• She sees more of the writing tools being used in the classroom--blogs and wikis--but not as much podcasting.
  
• The real skill needed by teachers and students will be the ability to be our own "digital age librarian," knowing how to access, select, and synthesize all of the available information. We need to tap into the power of "self-directed interest."
• On homeless or transient children: she is a living example of breaking the cycle of generational poverty. If we don't empower these children with the same technologies that the affluent child will get at home, then we are trapping them in their poverty. Homeless children move around a lot, and often the teachers are unaware of the true situation at home. After the interview, Sheryl and I talked at length about creating a program for teacher mentoring to homeless children, and the providing of computing resources at homeless shelters (see www.PublicWebStations.com).
  
• Her blog is 21stcenturylearning.typepad.com.

To join in a discussion of "School 2.0," please visit www.School20.net.

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"Aha!" Moment on Adoption of Web 2.0 in the Classroom?

A couple of months ago I had lunch with Bonnie Plummer, who is the chair of Education, Arts, and Humanities for the University of California Davis Extension. She'd seen some of my work on the use of Linux in the classroom, and didn't have a real agenda, but just wanted to talk about the problem of computers in schools: "everything that we have done hasn't worked." Now, she allows that's a bit of an exaggeration, but her experience as an assistant superintendent over instructional support services left her feeling that a huge amount of money was being spent on computers that were sitting in the back of most classrooms gathering dust.

We had a long discussion, much of which focused on the insights from Larry Cuban and the adoption and use patterns for technology in schools. In short: teachers are overburdened; even if they are technologically savvy, bringing the computer into the curriculum is hard when you don't have good training, lessons plans, or an assurance that all the computers will be working. Also, technology decisions are being made at higher levels than the teachers, and those decisions have more to do with security and performance than they do with promoting educational effectiveness. We came to a tentative conclusion: computers won't be integrated into the average classroom or truly be transformative until a "killer application" comes along--something that is so amazing and also so simple to use that everyone will be willing to do whatever it takes to utilize the computers. Bonnie also pointed out to me that some huge percentage of teachers in California are women, and without falling into stereotypes, the female brain is not wired in the same ways as the male brain with regard to technology. Whatever it is that the computer does, it has to be as easy to use as a "garage door opener," Bonnie insisted. We left our lunch having wondered out loud if that killer application might be distance learning (and so I went back to work and called Susan Patrick of NACOL and set up an interview).

Some weeks later I met with Bonnie again. She wanted me to meet someone who is involved in instructional technology at a regional level. Bonnie and I rehearsed our previous discussion with this good man, and he helped to bring some of his experience to the dialog. In short, he wasn't very optimistic about the ability to technology to transform education, and said that he still feels that it's only a very small percentage of teachers who see the transformative potential there--and that percentage, in his view, hasn't really changed over the last 15 years. Early adopters are using the new technologies of the web (Web 2.0) and having exciting experiences, but even if what is currently on the cutting edge has changed, that edge is still very separate from the vast majority of teachers. Are blogs and wikis and the "write" component of the web significant changes that can transform education? According to him, even if they are, they will likely not be able to jump the chasm between the early adopters and the bulk of teachers.

Why? Because ever since he was teaching and brought an early DOS computer into his classroom, control of the computers has moved from the teacher to the school to the district, and even to the county. Teachers don't have control of the technology, and the higher-level decision-making about computers means that the emphasis is on control and legal protection. They've even moved away from black-list filtering to white-list filtering, so getting to a new website for a teacher is almost impossible. His feeling was that the conversion of textbooks to electronic editions (pushed by laws about the weight of textbooks) will be the most significant force to actually put computers in the classroom to use. (That sure didn't sound transformative to me...) He also felt that recent approvals to purchase LCD projectors for classrooms would make a difference for teachers to be able to use their laptops in front of the students. (Again, a forward step, but not transformative.)

Then I had an epiphany--an "aha" moment. Knowing how transformative the read/write web had been for me, I wanted to find out if he felt that these technologies, even though they are just another wave of innovation, hold something special for education. I asked him if he had blogged. He felt badly, I could tell, but said he really had not. I asked if he listened to podcasts. No, no time.

Now, this is a guy who likes technology, and is using Breeze for lots of distance learning, and arranges technology workshops for teachers. He's no slacker. But he hasn't personally experienced the amazing things that happen when you become a producer of content.

The light bulb went off for me. There is no way that teachers are going to be able to bring this technology into the classroom without support from the administration. So, the key would be to help the administrators experience the personal educational benefits from the read/write web technologies. And how would you do that? Maybe not providing them with just more information on the benefits of the read/write web, but actually providing them with some kind of training that actually helps them use these technologies in their jobs. They then would experience what happens, and can either promote or be more supportive of these technologies.

I copied Will Richardson on this concept, and it turns out he had come to this conclusion some time ago... Both Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Chris Lehmann feel that the new generation of teachers (anyone 32 or younger had access to email in college) are more likely to demand change from the bottom up. But that puts the burden on teachers to make changes to our schools--which Larry Cuban says does not really work... So maybe no "aha" for now.