David Warlick: Ed Tech Is Exciting Again (School 2.0, Part 8)

"It's an intensely exciting world that we live in, and I think that teaching children about that world should be just as exciting."

"For the first time in history we're preparing kids for a future that we cannot clearly describe. We have no idea what their work experience is going to be like, what their life experience is going to be like, what their social experience is going to be like. We just don't have any firm target to aim our curriculum at..."

I caught David Warlick as he was leaving for a visit to China, and so this interview is a bit shorter than usual (about 45 minutes). The conversation took place over a wireless cellular connection, using Skype. (I'm really surprised that it worked as well as it did!)

Interview Notes:

• David starts the story of his interest in educational technology 31 years ago. Started teaching in 1976. No desktop computers as a part of what they were doing at that time. Started with Radio Shack model one. He became "seduced" by the possibilities of using computers to create learning opportunities for students.
  
• History of "Fredmail." In 1987, this was amazing. Helped pilot it in North Carolina.
  
• Says that technology has changed "culture" and "learning," but largely is has not changed "education." 1997 - 2000: it was much more exciting then than it is now. There was a lot of freedom to experiment and take risks. The computer has changed how we learn, but not how teaching is done.
• Web 2.0 is facilitating a lot more dialog than even just a few years ago. Teachers daring to suggest alternatives to how we should be teaching. More importantly, the kids are engaged in a different style of learning--much more engaged with information. They are having intense learning experiences with this new technology, and if we are in danger of becoming irrelevant to them if we can't get on board.
• Agrees with the concern that what the kids are learning is largely not as valuable as it could be--they still need "us" to be engaged in substantive learning. Our job is to take advantage of the new learning skills and opportunities to help them learn about the world (and not just be entertained [my words]).
• So what needs to change in formal education? He is seeing some real excitement at educational technology conferences that he hasn't seen in a while. Same feelings that he had in early 90's.
  
• On School 2.0: We are going to have to empower teachers to do whatever it takes to retool their classrooms. We have to free teachers with time and resources to learn, take risks, even to fail. We need a structure for education that allows for change to take place. Unless we free and empower teachers, give them time, tools, and flexiblity--we are "not going to make it."
• Can this take place in the current school system? Yes, if we realize how important it is. Other countries are reinventing education from scratch. Brazil, China, Hong Kong. We are realizing the importance of getting past "just the basics," and can happen if we realize that we just don't have a choice.
  
• "Education is entirely about conversation." For the first time in history, we live in a time of rapid change. We're preparing kids for a future that we cannot clearly describe. We need an education system that is as adaptable as the world we are preparing our students for.
  
• "I can't do Second Life--all I do is fall down!"
  
• A project he did when he was at the State Department of Education: "Voteline." Developed spreadsheets, students developed lists of what they thought were the key issues of the election. Interviewed voters, then tracked the candidates, and then projected the outcome of the election. The value of the activity was in the "conversations" they were having--both in the interviews, and with each other to determine the weight to give to each issue.
• He is still the most excited about blogging of all the technologies, because it is all about "conversation." Teachers keep telling him how excited students get about writing. Assignments stop being "assignments," but become engaged conversations. And it's so simple--get to the conversation to quickly without a lot of preparation.
  
• Social bookmarks should be "hugely" beneficial for teachers and librarians.
  
• How do you help those who hesitate to use these technologies? The benefits should be obvious. Blogging gives students voice to what they are learning. There's not a whole lot we can do but just wait for some of the negative reaction to die down. The worst thing we can do it to overreact. The best thing we can do is to engage in dialog with our students and children about the dangers and concerns. We've got to "become mature" about it and do everything we can to preserve the conversation we are having with our kids.
• Blogging as a professional development tool for teachers before they are asked to bring it into the classroom (a la Will Richardson)? Well, he sees a lot of teachers seeing the value of bringing blogging to students even if they aren't already blogging themselves. At the same time, his learning has been on a steeper incline in the last two years than ever before--just like other edubloggers have been experiencing and talking about.
  
• www.ClassBlogmeister.com plug. The first classroom blogging engine--he built it in 2004 so that teachers could oversee the content. There are others now--to be honest, he would urge people to go to the others, because ClassBlogmeister was needed at the time but he hasn't really been able to keep it as current as he might like. He has 63,000 users on his service, which is free.
• Other tools he's built: www.hitchhikr.com, www.citationmachine.net.

David is definitely one of my heroes.

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Academic Rigor: A Rough Cut

I'm intrigued by a the discussion of academic rigor, and I think our experience homeschooling our oldest daughter might shed some light on this subject. This is a draft of my thinking:

The dialog around academic rigor often feels as if it is based on the two opposing, but exclusive, viewpoints, between which we are asked to choose: 1) the environment which emphasizes passion, or 2) the environment that focuses on rigor. (The former being seen as "loose," and the latter often being the rationale for high-stakes testing.)

And just stopping here, I think there are many that would agree that the two should not be mutually exclusive. But even then, there is still an inherent assumption to the discussion that I want to challenge: either or both are almost always presented in the structure of our traditional school system--that is, where education is something that adults impose upon children.

Now, before you write me off as being flaky or weird, here is the alternative assumption: that education is essential to the health and well-being of ourselves as individuals, and when we are rigorously engaged in our own life learning, we can generatively mentor students by communicating the value of being both passionate and rigorous, and expecting both. And it is amazing to find that when education is treated this holistically, students can accomplish incredible things. We're all aware of students who have done this, we just don't see it as the norm (which is part of the problem).

In the homeschool program our daughter was in, it was believed and communicated that a student by the age of 14 - 16 should be so self-engaged in their education, that they have chosen challenging fields of interest to immerse themselves in, and are studying deeply 10+ hours a day. They are becoming scholars. They are reading the great books, interacting with challenging the brightest minds of their culture.

Do we believe in rigor and passion in our own educations? It's a hard message, but if our free time is filled with unchallenging and mindless entertainment, and if when we talk about our school days we speak of something that is behind us that "we got through," then our children will not know any better. When our major method for accomplishing something is enforcement (which is really what the culture of school is now), we give the implicit message that it is not something that is going to be enjoyed, no matter how much we say otherwise. Want to help your child become a better learner? Let them see you studying math or reading a classic...

All of the best stories of education come from instances where the students became so engaged and passionate that they sought rigor themselves.