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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, First Year Teachers, Teachers August 12, 2016

Hearing is Believing

By Dale Mann, Ph.D.

It’s no secret that teachers do a lot of talking in class. Since Ned Flanders’ documentation of classroom talk beginning in the 1960s, it has been widely understood that teachers talk about 80% of the time in a classroom for lower-achieving students and 55% of the time during classes for higher-achieving students. Flanders’ work can be summarized in the “rule of two-thirds”: during about two-thirds of the time in a classroom, someone is talking. Next, the chances are two out of three that the person talking is the teacher. Finally, when the teacher is talking, two-thirds of the time she will be lecturing, giving directions, and controlling students.

But there is a big gap between teachers talking and students hearing. Between the air conditioner, the bare floors, the traffic outside, the classes passing in the hallway, the whirring of laptops, and kids murmuring, the average classroom can reach 55 to 75 decibels of ambient sound, depending on grade level. Most of the time, teachers strain to close that gap by talking more loudly, but consider that a jet engine from 75 feet away is 140 decibels. To be heard by all children in an ordinary early-grades classroom, a teacher would have to project at half the volume of a jet engine, all day long, every day.

Also, the farther sound travels, the less intelligible it is. That means that the farther students are from the teacher, the more of the message that is lost. The research department of the Dade Public Schools in Florida puts the price paid by students in the back of the class as follows: “…(S)tudents sitting in the back of the class…may miss up to 30% of what their teacher says…” That’s like being absent from an hour and half of instruction during each five-hour instructional day.

To see how Lightspeed Technologies’ Flexcat classroom audio system could help address these issues, Interactive Inc. undertook a yearlong quantitative-qualitative analysis of nationally distributed groups of Flexcat users at all levels of K-12 schooling. The quantitative data came from self-reports and from extensive on-site observations and interviews with K-12 teachers in urban, suburban, and rural districts around the country.

A classroom installation of Flexcat looks something like the following: There is a speaker seven feet up on a bookcase and it projects “all-call” volume. Each small-group table for students has a pod that serves as both a speaker and a microphone. The pods are battery operated and last all day on a single charge. The sound from the pod in the middle of a small group is remarkably localized with unambiguous, unavoidable clarity. The teacher’s messages to one pod are not audible to students in other groups.

How Flexcat Helped Teachers

The average teacher we spoke with used Flexcat to monitor students five times a day. A majority of the responding teachers concluded that using the tool had made some positive difference with their “hard-to-reach, hard-to-teach students,” while two-thirds of the teachers said they used Flexcat both to check on-task behavior and to confirm the quality of student work.

Two-thirds of the teacher respondents thought that, “The on-task behavior of my students has increased since I started using Flexcat.” And, as one teacher said, “When I see a group that’s off-task, that’s where I put the pod.” Two-thirds of the teachers we interviewed agreed that “management of multiple small groups is more efficient with Flexcat” and that Flexcat made project-based learning more feasible.

Nine out of 10 teachers concluded that students were more likely to stay on task if they knew their teacher was watching and listening. Perhaps most powerfully, 100% of the teachers agreed that they were “better able to catch students doing good” by using the pods to listen in to small group activities.

The fact that the pods allow teachers to listen in to student conversations makes Flexcat, as one teacher put it, “A window into their brain that you don’t get from paper and pencil. Or from a standardized test. What, really, does a ‘B’ tell me? If I can listen to their logic and their train of thought, then I know where they went wrong and right.”

Dale Mann, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at Columbia University (Teachers College and the School for International & Public Affairs) and managing director of Interactive, Inc. Since 1985, he has concentrated in developing and evaluating the gains from e-learning, a field in which Dr. Mann has been identified as one of America’s ten most influential leaders. Want to follow Lightspeed or Interactive Inc. on Twitter? Follow them @lightspeedtek and @interactiveinc.

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch August 11, 2016

4 Things High School Students Should Know Before Graduation

As the stakes rise regarding the necessity of a high school diploma for lifelong success, so do the standards to earn one. High school graduates today must know more than the generations that came before them, both in academic and real-world applications. All of the lesson planning from Kindergarten forward funnels student information into the end goal of high school and college graduation.

While rigorous academics can certainly prepare students for college, which is just one facet of what I believe they should know. There is no way to totally prepare a young adult for the realities of the college experience and what it will mean for his or her long-term success, but there are some things that high school educators should emphasize, including:

The cost of a college education. We are so quick to push our students towards a college education that we often forget the practicalities. While in most cases a college degree will pay off in the end, it is expensive upfront and can have an impact on the early years of adulthood. It is flawed thinking to assume that young people with very limited experience with their personal finances will truly be able to comprehend the cost and sacrifice of a college education. Any efforts to better inform students about the responsibility and reality of a college education should not be undertaken as a discouragement but rather as a way to inform them of what those things will mean in real-life settings. Things like estimated college loan repayments, and for how long, should be discussed and put in terms of how many hours of work that money will end up equaling.

The importance of a college degree. While it does come at a cost, a college degree is well worth it over the course of a lifetime. People with bachelor degrees earn nearly $1 million more over their lifetimes than their peers who receive high school diplomas. People with master’s degrees earn closer to $1.3 million more. So even the most expensive colleges, if paid out of pocket and through loans, still do not tally up to the lifetime earnings potential of a college graduate versus a high school one. A college degree holds more than financial value though. There is the issue of job stability and security too. By 2018, over 60 percent of jobs will require a college degree and that number is sure to rise. This next generation of K-12 students simply cannot afford to bypass college learning and this should be emphasized to high school students whenever higher education is discussed.

The outlook in the industry of interest. From a young age, children are asked the inevitable “what do you want to be when you grow up?” question. With stars in their eyes, they talk about the jobs that seem the most glamorous – firefighters, movie stars, doctors and maybe even teachers. While all of these are noble career choices, high school students should have a firm grasp on the field they want to pursue in terms of job opportunities and earning potential. Again, this is not to discourage students from following what they believe to be their calling – but it is a way to guide them into their field of interest with eyes wide open.

Alternatives to college. What if a student cannot afford to go to college; what do they do then? We have to explain to students that sometimes life throws you lemons, but that doesn’t mean you should just give up and settle for less. We have to teach them that here are other ways to get the education they want without shelling out huge amounts of cash or placing themselves in debt.

Short diploma courses, like the diploma of community services from BCA National are geared towards offering practical learning, without the huge price tag. The best thing about short courses, particularly online ones, are that they are affordable and offer tremendous flexibility as well as a real diploma that people can use in their job applications. Students may want to consider obtaining this type of practical training if they need to gain skills that will be useful in various types of positions.

What else should high school students know after high school?

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here.

Matthew Lynch published in International Education, Teachers August 11, 2016

Schools are struggling to recruit teachers, survey finds

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post from VoicED

A recent survey, published by the National Association of Head Teachers, has discovered that approximately 64 per cent of schools leaders are findings recruitment for teachers difficult, especially in core subjects such as English and maths.

The survey also uncovered that around 1 in 3 school leaders felt that newly qualified teachers (NQTs), working at their school, were not prepared for the classroom, with reports of NQTs finding controlling classes hard, as well as not being knowledgeable enough in some subjects.

The findings come at a time of increasing concern about the crisis in hiring and retaining school staff.

Of the 1,000 members of the National Association of Head Teachers surveyed, 61.8 per cent claimed that they had faced difficulty finding senior teachers, on the upper pay scale.

40.5 per cent claimed that a lack of talent was the main factor in struggling to recruit teachers, whilst 41.4 per cent said that the main reason was the low quality candidates applying for their positions.

When looking at which subjects are hard to recruit for, the survey found that 40 per cent of the head teachers in the survey were finding it hard to recruit maths teachers, whilst 32 per cent were finding recruiting for English teachers hard.

The survey also discovered that around 33 per cent considered the NQTs at their school to be unprepared for working at a school. Of the 33 per cent who said this, 73 per cent said that this was due to them not being able to manage a classroom.

Also, 58 per cent said that it was because the NQTs lacked subject knowledge and 56 per cent said that it was because they did not understand teaching, learning and child development enough.

53 per cent said that the NQTs were not able to analyse and use data and 50 per cent said that they were not good enough at lesson planning.

Louis Coiffait of the National Association of Head Teachers said of the survey findings:

“It’s time to be frank; we’re facing a recruitment crisis at all stages of the education system. Until we address it at each of those stages, there’s no chance that we’ll have the quantity or quality of head teachers we need in the future.”

The findings were released just a fortnight after a teaching union warned that 2 in 5 teachers are not in the classroom a year of qualifying.

___________
The VoicED Community is a place for education professionals to share their opinions about topics spanning the entirety of the education sphere – from the curriculum to new resources, and from remuneration to SEN support. This piece originally published on VoicED.org.uk and is republished here with permission.

Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch August 11, 2016

Diverse Conversations: Let’s Talk About Financial Aid

The Washington Post reports that the average college student will graduate with $25,000 in debt. With over $1 trillion in outstanding loans, student debt outweighs credit card debt and is exempt from bankruptcy protection. Even with these startling statistics, students will continue to borrow money in order to pay for college. College and university financial aid departments must operate at an optimal level in order to ensure that students have access to viable financial aid options and that federal regulations are followed. In order to find out more about the financial aid side of higher education, I decided to interview Steve Booker, director of financial aid at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

Q: How do financial aid operations fit into your overall campus environment?

A: Financial aid is a critical piece in ensuring students who enroll at Rollins College are able to graduate on time. We work with families to plan out their four year college career and estimate total loan debt as well as out-of-pocket amounts. This way, we eliminate as much of the unknown costs as possible.

Q: How is your financial aid office perceived by your office, others on campus, and students?

A: Finances are personal and can be intimidating for families and students. As such, faculty and staff across campus are the first line of identifying potential issues through interactions with students. They often identify students who are struggling financially and help these students contact our office. When faculty and staff provide the introduction to the Financial Aid Office, students are more at ease and we can work together to find solutions.

Q: What is greatest challenge related to financial aid that you will face on your campus in the next five years? How is your institution preparing to address this challenge?

A: Our greatest challenge continues to be the rising cost of education and the lack of planning by many families. More families seek financial aid and need assistance. In
order to encourage more planning, our office visits local high schools for presentations as well as partners with programs such as Take Stock in Children and College for Every Student in order to get the word out about financial aid options earlier in a student’s education. The earlier we can raise the awareness of college and need for planning, the more options available to the family to save and prepare for the cost of college.

Q: What effects have state budget cuts had on your institution?

A: As a private institution, the state budget cuts impacted us a bit differently. Many of our students receive Bright Futures and/or the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) which provide funding for Florida residents. Bright Futures has not risen as quickly as the cost of college and the test score requirements have increased significantly, which reduces the number of eligible recipients. FRAG has been reduced over the past few years, but is now steadily rising. These programs are important to our Florida residents and help reduce the amount of loans a student will borrow.

Q: What, if anything, can institutions do to stop the upward spiral of college costs and the increasing need for additional student aid funds?

A: Alternative delivery methods can help reduce certain costs. For example, online courses reduce the costs of transportation and potentially books. Also, providing information earlier to families including options to save can help families be in a better position at the point of college entry.

Q: Federal regulations stemming from a school’s participation in the federal student aid programs are increasingly reaching into other departments at a school (e.g., campus safety, admissions, records). How is your school making sure the entire institution is in compliance with these increasingly far-reaching regulations?

A: Through external and internal audits, we are able to stay on top of the reporting and disclosure requirements. In addition, the Office of Institutional Research provides a secondary check to ensure documents and notifications are available.

Q: How can a financial aid director raise the status of his or her office in the eyes of a college president?

A: Make sure that the Financial Aid Director either has a “seat at the table” or ensure that his/her direct supervisor is able to articulate the financial aid needs of the student body.

Q: If you were standing before Congress today, what would you want to tell them about student aid?

A: Financial aid is an important piece of the puzzle in bridging the gap between a family’s finances and the cost of higher education. Providing clear, concise, and accurate information for families to rely on and plan their educational career is critical. As a community, we need to reach families much earlier in elementary school in order to assist in the planning and preparation process. This should include incentives for families to save for higher education as well as provide a blueprint for children to succeed at each grade level. Recognizing the behaviors of academically successful students and breaking that down into achievable steps at each grade level (i.e., learning how to study, how to ask thoughtful questions) will provide opportunities for students to flourish.

This concludes my interview with Steve Booker. I would like to thank him for consenting to this interview.

Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Higher Education, list, Matthew Lynch, OpEducation August 11, 2016

College Football: 6 Ways to See More African American Head Coaches

College football is arguably the most popular sport at the nation’s colleges and universities. Bringing in over $90 million annually in revenue at the highest grossing University of Texas, it is no wonder that school leaders view the football team as less of an extracurricular activity and more of a moneymaker. The revenue that is generated by college football programs only represents a small piece of the overall financial benefits. Schools with strong athletic programs, particularly in the area of football, bring in more prospective students and have larger booster groups in place.

With all that comes from college football programs, it would be nice to see more African American coaches in colleges. Here are the facts and solutions so that African Americans can enjoy this profession and the robust culture that comes with it.

Of the 124 Division 1-A college football schools, only 15 had African American coaches in the 2012 season, according to an executive report by the Black Coaches Association. The Big Ten conference has seen zero black head coaches in the past 10 years.
While head coaches are the most visible, support positions are severely underrepresented as well. Only 312 of 1,018 of college football assistant coaches are black and only 31 of 255 of offensive and defensive coordinators are African American. Combined, black football coaches and support staff represent a measly 5 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision numbers.

At Division II and Division III schools, diversity is even worse. The Black Coaches Association reports that in the 2012 season, only 9 schools of 113 in these two categories had head coaches of color. These numbers exclude historically black universities.

Despite the thousands of black college football players in recent decades, barely a handful has been trusted with leading teams. These ex-players obviously understand the game and know what college athletes face on the field — so what gives?

Part of the problem is that schools are quick to dismiss coaches of all backgrounds when immediate improvement does not take place. The most recent high-profile example was the firing of Jon Embree by the University of Colorado in November. Floyd Keith of the Black Coaches Association called the firing a “disappointment” and wished that the school had given Embree a third season to prove himself. The school pointed to a 4-21 record over the course of two seasons as the reason for the firing but critics, like Keith, say that just two years is simply not enough time to turn a team around.
Many critics are also quick to point out that white coaches with bad numbers are often still considered a hot commodity by other schools when they are on the market, whereas black coaches have historically been given just one shot to prove their talent.

It is also important to note that a college football coach does not have the same responsibilities as an NFL one. Winning is valuable to the university, but so are other aspects like graduation rates of players and team conduct. Both play an indirect role in the revenue the school is able to generate in future years by attracting new students. Yet with turnover rates of all college coaches rising every football season, a shift toward a “winning takes place on the field” mentality is evident.

So what can be done about this?

There is no disputing statistics when it comes to underrepresentation of African Americans in all levels of college football coaching. With so much being said about this issue, not much problem-solving has happened.

Colleges and universities would do well to take a cue from the NFL when it comes to hiring minority coaches. Established in 2003, the Rooney Rule requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for all vacant head coaching positions and other executive football operation spots. After just three seasons, the Rooney Rule lead to an increase of 22 percent in the number of African American head coaches in the NFL and those numbers rise every season. A similar rule only makes sense in a college athletic setting, especially since so many other aspects of higher education use affirmative action programs to bolster diversity and opportunity.
Another possible option is for schools to set up coaching mentorship programs for minority players that show leadership potential. An even better approach would be an NCAA-sanctioned program that seeks out talented players and gives them some exposure to coaching and maybe even a certificate program. These earmarked players could then begin working their way through the coaching ranks sooner and have a common knowledge base.

All changes need to be initiated by the NCAA, college athletics governing body. For a real dynamic shift to be felt across the board, every school needs to have the same diversity opportunities and rules as all the others. It is not enough to wish that more schools took a closer look at African Americans to fill head football coaching spots; an overarching game plan needs to be in place for true change to occur.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education August 10, 2016

How men benefit from family-friendly tenure policies

Kelly Bedard, University of California, Santa Barbara; Heather Antecol, Claremont McKenna College, and Jenna Stearns, University of California, Santa Barbara

On Friday, August 26, as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day – a day marking the 96th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote – it is a time to reflect both on the progress that has been made on gender equality and on how much work still remains.

As academics, we are well aware that gender gaps continue to exist on American campuses. It is true that female students now outnumber male students, and also that more women earn professional degrees compared to men. But it is also true that only 28 percent of tenured faculty are women.

Tenure represents a permanent job contract. It usually takes about six or seven years of being on tenure track – a probationary period during which a junior professor’s publication record, teaching ability and departmental service are monitored and assessed – to get tenure.

In recent years, many research universities have adopted more “family-friendly” tenure rules aimed at helping women balance family and career. Our research shows that despite such policies, gender equality remains elusive in academia when it comes to tenure consideration. Rather, some of these policies are helping men, not women.

Gender-neutral tenure policies

For most people, the tenure process occurs during their late 20’s and early 30’s. These years typically align with women’s prime child-bearing years. This can hinder women’s research productivity and thus reduce their chances of earning tenure.

More generally, having children could reduce the probability of being promoted in a variety of professions. Women’s early career productivity could fall due to the time time spent in child bearing and child care.

However, the problem might be particularly acute at research universities where research productivity during the few years before the tenure decision is especially important.

Women’s productivity in early years of their careers could fall when they have children. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Follow, CC BY-SA

In response, during the 1990s and 2000s many research institutions adopted “gender-neutral tenure clock-stopping policies.” These policies were intended to make it easier for women who have children to earn tenure.

The policies are gender-neutral: That is, they allow parents of either gender to avail their benefits. They allow new parents to extend their terms as assistant professors. They stop the tenure clock for one year for each new child, up to a maximum of two.

In other words, new parents get more time before they have to go up for tenure. These policies are independent of leave-taking, meaning that assistant professors can continue to work while gaining the extra time on their tenure clocks.

The idea is to allow new parents to make up for lost research time. And also, so women and men should not need to sacrifice family for career, and vice versa.

Are these policies equitable?

We recently conducted a study, “Equal but Inequitable: Who Benefits from Gender-Neutral Tenure Clock Stopping Policies,” on these tenure clock-stopping policies.

Our study focuses on economics professors – a very male-dominated field. A 2014 survey by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) shows that in economics, women constitute 30 percent of assistant professors, 23 percent of tenured associate professors and only 12 percent of full professors.

Gender-neutral policies are believed to reduce stigma about use by encouraging male participation, at least with regard to economics faculty. We believe one of the primary reasons universities have adopted gender-neutral policies is that there was low take-up under policies that only applied to women.

However, we found no evidence that they have helped women earn tenure.

In fact, we found the policy – designed to help women get tenure – instead raised male tenure rates, at least in top economics departments.

The probability of a man getting tenure in his first job increased by 19 percentage points after such a policy was adopted. By contrast, the probability of a female academic getting tenure fell by 22 percentage points.

We believe male publication rates rise with the extra time, but female publication rates do not.

So, these gender-neutral policies are equal in the sense that they give the same benefit to women and men who have children. But they are inequitable in that the time cost (or productivity loss) experienced by men and women is quite different.

For example, it is women who become pregnant, experience morning sickness, give birth and breastfeed. As such, we believe, giving an equal extension without an equal productivity loss might better be described as unequal. And it is certainly less than clear that it will level the playing field in terms of tenure rates.

Why there is a need to rethink

Although our results represent a single discipline, they certainly raise concerns that this could be a problem across a broad range of fields. Female tenure rates are lower across almost all academic disciplines. In science disciplines, men who have children before tenure are 24 percentage points more likely to earn tenure compared to women with children. And in the humanities and social sciences, men with children are 20 percentage points more likely to earn tenure.

Our results suggest we might want to rethink these policies. One of the arguments in favor of “gender-neutral clock-stopping” policies stems from women having been discouraged – by their male colleagues – from taking advantage of policies that apply to mothers only.

Why extending the same benefits to men and women is not equitable. Penn State, CC BY-NC

Our research findings, based in the discipline of economics, do raise the question whether extending equal benefits to men and women is equitable in practice. We also don’t know if these policies had a similar effect in other disciplines with different publication requirements.

While it is easy to instruct the people making tenure decisions to ignore the additional time on the tenure clock, it is not as easy to know how it actually affects their thinking about the tenure case and hence their evaluation.

Need family-friendly policies

In theory, gender-neutral policies that attempt to level the playing field by adjusting measures of productivity to account for early child-rearing sound promising. However, as our research shows, such policies could have unintended consequences that actually hurt women.

We believe university administrators need to reopen the discussion on tenure policies, and the extent to which these benefits are extended to men and women.

But universities are not the only places where family-friendly policies may have unintended consequences. Lawyers, financial professionals and doctors are also likely to be promoted based on early measures of success. Evidence shows family gaps in each of these professions, especially among top earners.

As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, let us emphasize the need for more family-friendly policies to create a more level playing field for high-skill professionals who face rigid and important promotion decisions early in their careers.

Kelly Bedard, Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara; Heather Antecol, Boswell Professor of Economics, Claremont McKenna College, and Jenna Stearns, Ph.D. Student, University of California, Santa Barbara

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education August 10, 2016

Successfully attaining a degree online is all about flexibility

A guest column by Jason Henry

Higher education is supposed to serve as a way out of poverty. From the school house to the White House, education is used as nomenclature for economic prosperity.

It’s how President Barack Obama ascended to leader of the free world and how so many Americans are able to attain the American dream.

It’s also why many low-income individuals enroll in schools that advertise the ability to graduate from college by way of the internet. A promise from many for-profit institutions, as well as non-profit ones, that a work around to an individual’s already hectic life was possible.

But with higher education often comes higher debt because so many low-income individuals need financial aid to attend. For-profit colleges and universities are often classified as private and have astronomical tuition prices.

Even with high numbers and scrutiny from the United States Department of Education, gaining a college degree is still likely the best way to climb out of poverty.

By way Medium.com, the author of an op-ed shows just how well online education is doing and how many students are at least participating in acquiring an education digitally.

It’s all due to flexibility and what students actually need versus what higher education facilities believe they need.

“When students taking the ACT college readiness exam were allowed to send four free copies of their results to colleges instead of three, poorer students used the extra test to apply to schools where admittance wasn’t a sure thing, and often got in to these ‘stretch’ schools.”

Students of the past who were considered successful likely had the ability to be flexible, e.g. going to class without having to work or worry about paying the next bill. While some students were able to pull through college by working and paying bills, many weren’t so lucky.

Affording flexibility to today’s students by working with them and around varying work schedules is not just a win for the student because that person is more likely to graduate, but it shows growth in how we view online education and what it’s doing for our students.

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Jason Henry is a burgeoning writer and locally recognized political analyst in Orlando and Birmingham. You can read his blog The Jason Henry Project on the hypeorlando network.

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, list, Matthew Lynch August 10, 2016

3 Reasons Students Don’t Play More Games in the Classroom

Children are becoming acutely acquainted with mobile technology long before their K-12 classroom years. When they arrive at their first organized school experiences, they are often already savvy on basic computers and mobile devices. If their parents used this technology correctly, these kids have had at least some exposure to phonics and math through learning websites, downloads and other applications.

With these new developments, you would expect that children would continue to learn in this fun and easy way—but this is not the case. Research suggests that once these young learners enter a classroom, however, learning through tech “games” disappears. Families may still choose to buy the apps and use them at home but schools are slow to bring gamification of education into their classrooms.

A report by the market research group Ambient Insight found that edtech in the forms of learning games is not making its way into classrooms. Instead of educators making learning game purchases, marketers target parents because they are the ones who buy them. The North American edtech market is expected to grow over 15 percent in the next half-decade but company leaders have candidly said that they will focus marketing efforts on parents, not schools. To paraphrase, targeting schools is simply a waste of time.

So why are games developed for young learners having such a difficult time entering classrooms? Let’s take a look at a few reasons why.

It’s always about the money. Money is a factor and it impacts more than the purchase of the games or applications themselves. K-12 schools are still in the process of creating mobile technology policies and finding the money in their budgets to fund these initiatives. There are also issues of slow internet speeds and low bandwidths that prevent too many students from flooding the network at once. If teachers do not have the right technology in their classrooms, they cannot purchase the games to enhance lessons.
Regulations are another issue when it comes to the quick implementation of learning technology, including games. There seems to be a distrust of games, and in some cases of technology in general, and their place in the classroom setting. By the time teachers can prove the worth of the games they want to use, another game is available with more bells and whistles. For-profit companies that develop these learning games have no hoops to jump through with parents but the same cannot be said of schools.
Too much screen time rots your brain…or at least that is the prevailing belief. Researchers have actually found benefits of these games for young minds. In her paper “Children’s Motivations for Video Game Play in the Context of Normal Development,” Cheryl Olson found that games, even non-educational ones, improve decision-making and encourage self-expression in children. If there is an educational feature, children absorb the knowledge while finely tuning motor and strategic skills.

It stands to reason then that children with access to gaming technology at home are at an advantage. If there was no educational gaming at home AND no educational gaming at school, it would be a different story. Instead, parents that can afford the vehicles for the technology and the games themselves are able to better prepare children for the classroom and academic success – furthering a socio-economic achievement gap. Through educational technology that is readily available to consumers, the advantaged become more so and the disadvantaged fall farther behind.

For all students to benefit from edtech initiatives, schools need to find the funding for better technology suites and cut through red tape more quickly. Otherwise the educational opportunities presented through gaming will never be fully realized and the students will suffer.

Have you found ways to incorporate edtech, particularly when it comes to gaming, into your classroom?

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch August 9, 2016

Keeping Public School Libraries Relevant

Public school libraries have always served an admirable purpose in education. In an indirect way, K-12 libraries have given students support in learning endeavors and been a go-to spot for information. With that being said, as the first Internet-generation rises through the public school ranks, libraries need big changes to remain relevant. It is not enough to simply “be there;” school libraries need to reach out to students and pull them in with helpful resources that combine traditional and contemporary theories in literacy.

Many school libraries are already making strides to capture and maintain the interest of students, while others seem to always be trailing just a few steps behind. Programs like the YOUmedia initiative housed at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library incorporate student-led publishing, music as a form of literacy and encouragement in academic pursuits to keep K-12 kids interested in what the library can do for them. Though YOUmedia does not take place in a public school, the open access to urban students and push towards literacy through technology are applicable to school settings.

For public school libraries to keep up with student need, and grab the ever-divided attention of these youth, a blend of traditional and contemporary philosophy needs to take place. The most vital include:

Traditional:

Unbiased, and unlimited, access to information. This is at the core of every K-12 library’s purpose. All students have a level playing field when it comes to obtaining information and learning.

Catalyst for social change. In their own quiet ways, school libraries have provided progressive thought through the materials they have provided over the years. Long before Internet search engines reigned supreme, students were able to research what they wanted in private, without fear of retaliation. Providing access to a wide variety of information has made school libraries an important piece in forward thinking.

Safe oasis. School libraries have always afforded students a quiet, safe place for extracurricular meetings and studies. They have also given teachers a place to escape or quietly prepare for classes without unnecessary distractions. Students and teachers do not have to answer for themselves in a library setting, but can take some quiet time to get ready for what comes next.

Community space. Most school libraries have several areas that can serve numerous purposes. Extracurricular clubs, planning committees or just friends who want to study together can meet in school libraries and have the space needed to accomplish tasks.

Contemporary:

Digital access. Instead of blocking websites or banning mobile devices from within library walls, schools should be finding ways to take part in the digital side of students’ lives. This goes beyond e-book offerings and extends to things like mobile apps and permission-based email reminders of upcoming school library events.

Remote access. Students should have the ability to tap into school library resources off campus. The most basic necessity is an online card catalogue that is browser-based so students can look for what they need any time of day and from any location. Remote access may also mean digitizing archival photos and documents so students can access them from home and use the information in reports and other assignments. There is certainly something to be said of visiting the physical library for learning purposes, but without instant, remote options, students will bypass any help the school library provides in favor of a more convenient route.

Life skills development. Libraries should not simply hand out books, but should take a vested interest in what the information contained means for long-term student success. School libraries should not just act as a support system to other life skills initiatives, but should create their own opportunities to guide students.

Live events. A great way to earn the attention of contemporary students is to engage them in literacy in a live, personal way. This might mean inviting an author for a book reading or bringing in a local celebrity to discuss a book or media trend. School library staff should not be intimidated by geography; technology has made it possible to host these live events via Skype or other video software.

Libraries of the Future:

Experts agree that a blend of foundational values and access through technology are paramount to school library success. Library expert Doug Johnson says that all libraries have three primary responsibilities in the coming decade: providing “high touch environments in a high tech world;” offering virtual services; and standing ground as uber information hubs. Rolf Erikson is the author of Designing a School Library Media Center for the Future and he says that he is very “wary” of tradition because he feels it has kept administrators and library faculty from embracing innovation in the past. He believes that especially at the elementary school level, future libraries need to look beyond mere text materials to provide a learning space, not simply a “warehouse space.”

The Associate University Librarian for Research and Instruction at Temple University, Steven J. Bell, has written extensively on the topic of libraries of the future in higher education and K-12 institutions. He predicts that libraries of the future will have highly automated and mobile reference sections, on-demand collections and entrepreneurial librarians unafraid to learn new technology and implement cutting-edge ideas. Like Johnson and Erikson, Bell is optimistic for the role school libraries will play in K-12 education if decision-makers are willing to break out of the traditional rut.

For school library relevancy to remain strong, librarians and media faculty need not view tradition and technology as isolated ideas. There is really no reason why school libraries should fear competing sources of information. With the right adjustments, K-12 libraries can work alongside the rest of the data students access on a daily basis. Remaining relevant is simply a matter of carrying foundational ideals forward and adapting to an ever-changing information culture.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation August 9, 2016

How Do You Engage Parents Who Don’t Speak English?

Teacher Kerri Gardner uses a communication app with a translation feature to connect her kindergarten class with parents and the wider community.

By Chaks Appalabattula

Parent communication is a challenge in every school. According to a Gallup poll, only 1 in 5 parents are truly engaged with their children’s school. Districts with high immigration and low income rates have the added problem that many parents don’t fully understand English. Often, these same families have incomes that make regular access to a computer impossible. Most of these families do have access to a smartphone, though. Here’s an example of how one district took advantage of that fact to engage hard-to-reach parents.

Holyoke School District is a Title 1 district in Colorado that serves more than 400 families. The district communicates with these families through teacher notes and calls, newsletters, emails, newspaper articles, and more. Holyoke also offers evening workshops and meetings throughout the year on topics including technology, literacy, and scholarship applications. There are several committees that parents are encouraged to join, including an Accountability Committee, Parents in Education (PIE), and a Wellness Committee. The district also helps families with its Migrant Program and Homeless Program. Despite all of these existing programs, engaging immigrant parents is always a challenge, since they do not feel connected to the school community.

Turning Disconnected Parents into Academic Allies

Kerri Gardner is a kindergarten teacher at Holyoke Elementary School. Like many teachers in her district, she is always looking for a way to engage parents in her classes. “I wanted parents to know what we did throughout the day so they could talk to their child about it,” she said. In her search for a way to get past the language barrier that exists with many of her parents, about a year ago she found an app called Bloomz that promised to simplify communication with parents, and decided to give it a try.

Bloomz is a free mobile and web app that works on traditional phones (via text message), on computers, or even smartphones (via a mobile app). Bloomz offers translation to more than 84 languages. When she first started using the app, Gardner “was concerned about participation level from parents because our population is high poverty and we have high populations of a second language being spoken at home. Despite this, most of my parents signed up.”

With the Bloomz translation feature, Gardner posts messages or updates in English and parents receive them automatically translated into their preferred language. Gardner also bridges the language barrier by communicating with images. Last year, she remembered, “I took a lot of pictures to share with parents what fun learning activities we were doing. Pictures worked really well in Bloomz because of the language issues with parents, and for parents to share the pictures with their child in order to increase discussion.”

Staying in touch with parents on a daily basis had an impact on the dynamics of her classroom, too. “Bloomz promotes better behavior,” she said, “letting parents know how a student’s behavior is at school so parents can reinforce good behaviors at home or discuss poor behavior.” (Bloomz has recently announced new features to help track students’ behavior and share student portfolios, which will be available in time for the new school year.)

The daily communication allowed Gardner to work with parents to their students’ academic benefit, she said. Inspired by a message from her, “A parent talks to their child about what he learned that day and sees that he could use a little more practice and works with him at home on the skill.”

Gardner also found her own innovative ways to use the app in the classroom. “We took the photos and used them in class to meet a social studies standard, putting the pictures from the year in order on a timeline,” she shared. “I’ve basically photo-documented my kindergartners’ entire year because of the Bloomz app.”

Connecting with the Community at Large

In order to have a lasting impact, though, technology has to go beyond the classroom setting to help schools build relationships with their parent communities. As Gardner put it, “Bloomz helps develop positive relationships between school, home, and even the public by letting parents see the good things we’re doing at school.”

Her school administrator has taken notice, and is now asking several other teachers to start using the app as well. “It gives him a window into my classroom so that he can see what learning activities I’m using to teach the standards,” she said.

Gardner has big plans for Bloomz beyond the classroom: “To promote positive relationships with the community, next year I’d like to invite our local newspaper to view our Bloomz feed so that if they see a learning activity that they like, they can print it in the newspaper—with parent permission if photos are involved.”

Technology doesn’t only benefit people in high-income communities. Armed with a phone, a powerful imagination, and a communication app that seamlessly translates for her diverse community, Gardner has helped catapult Holyoke into a new century of community-building and parental engagement.

Chaks Appalabattula is the CEO of Bloomz, a new app that connects teachers with parents, creating an engaged parent community in classrooms and schools.

Want to follow Bloomz on Twitter? Follow them @BloomzApp

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Higher Education August 9, 2016

Education Should Begin with Problem-Solving

When schools compete, who wins?

That depends partly on how they compete. In the world of higher education, universities compete for enrollment: more students, and more funding. They compete for prestige: better students, and more acclaimed faculty. They compete for funding: more research, more graduate students. Do they ever compete to solve real world problems.

It is easy, amid all the competition for these benchmarks, to forget that the mission of any school–university or otherwise–should be to solve problems, and to teach students to do the same.

Solving Problems, or Hogging the Spotlight?

You can see the difference when it comes to the hype cycle that is so prevalent in today’s technology-obsessed reporting. Catching wind of the Next Big Thing in education–from the augmented reality classroom to the gamified lesson plan, the personalized learning system to the responsive test–may make headlines, but it may also drive us to lose sight of what all these new tools and old practices are really all about.

Online learning has been guilty of both in the past. MOOCs were heralded as the end of formal college education as we knew it, only to then be decried as non-starters that students were more likely to drop out of than use as a ladder to success. For-profit colleges, in the interest of maximizing enrollment (and profits), became synonymous with “online degrees,” even as major universities tried to bring their own curriculum and faculty into the internet age. Both are still struggling to win the credibility game.

All this, despite the fact that more and more students say they prefer online learning to traditional classrooms. It all can start to look like higher education is just a pie, and schools are just looking to get their slice, rather than ensure everyone is fed.

But between the breaking stories, there is some innovation quietly targeting not general acclaim or government-backed student loans, but the real world problems and challenges an educated populace is supposed to solve. When a program begins its life as a solution, rather than as a novelty or an obligatory offering, it makes an important difference–and not just to the students.

The UNProject

Several years ago, the state’s Department of Children and Family Services cut funding to travel training for agents working in the rural areas of Nevada. No longer could these welfare agents be compensated for pursuing professional training and continuing education by traveling.

Considering the geography of Nevada, as well as the socioeconomics of such a large, dispersed, and often underserved population, this put both the social workers and the families they served at a meaningful disadvantage.

Today it is easy to suggest that the circumstances clearly called for a distance education system to bridge the gap and keep rural social workers equipped with the best knowledge and practices available. That is the model used to deploy telehealth services like primary care to the nation’s rural and remote communities, after all.

But when the University of Nevada in Reno (UNR)’s social work department took on the challenge, they recognized that they had to do more than just digitize a curriculum–they had to make it practical, and accessible to people who would put their education directly into action.

This is what led to their UnProject: UNR’s attempt to broadcast training and learning opportunities using a new, online, education system that ran on the same Blackboard-based platform the university already used.

Blending Innovation with Accountability

Students, parents, professors, employers, and politicians all recognize the historical void of accountability in higher education. Graduates with exceptional records are still routinely seen as unprepared to do real work, and the growing burden of student debt is often cited as an example of waste and reckless spending when it doesn’t produce a growing economy or cutting-edge workforce.

Simply giving students material and holding them accountable for digesting it wasn’t a viable model. UNR was a stakeholder in the success of everyone who used their online classroom to serve real clients and their families around the state; outcomes were practical, not just grades and test scores. The faculty behind the curriculum of these programs were collaborating with the Nevada DCFS to determine areas of need, both on behalf of the clients, and of the social workers serving these families. They couldn’t drop the ball when it came to delivery.

The UnProject at UNR took questions of accountability head-on, because the very nature of the program was to solve a problem. Solving that problem required innovation, which meant the instructors were creatively designing course materials and accommodating their delivery platform in the interest of finding what worked best–not just adding bells and whistles for the sake of modernity or bragging rights.

Feedback was instant and continuous. The instructors learned what worked, what didn’t, and what had the biggest impact on the social workers in the field. They also helped these workers bridge the mental gap to see the new platform as a tool for them–not a novelty, and not a half-measure, but an evolving response to a felt need.

The best part was, their most effective tools weren’t something they had to purchase, or build from scratch: they were the basics already built-in to their Blackboard platform. They were free to focus on disseminating best practices and responding to their students, rather than troubleshooting with an unwieldy, untested new system.

Where You Start Informs Where You Go

This foundation in practice, in problem-solving, and in going from state bureaucrats to rural families and workers, underscores what is now the online social work degree at UNR.

Yes, it is still just another online degree–but the faculty and resources that power the program are as much a tool of the state government as they are a product delivered to paying students. The program grew from something solving a problem, to a pathway to certification. This is the broad sort of model that makes education meaningful and resilient–not just incorporating the latest gimmicks.

A focus on problem-solving answers more questions than simply format and packaging: rural child welfare workers are not looking to put feathers in their caps by taking online classes; these are professionals on the fringes of society (literally: Nevada is a huge state with many rural, impoverished, and marginalized communities and families). That means the curriculum, the materials, and the medium are all, by necessity, whittled down to what works.

It wasn’t a PR stunt. The people who benefited from the new system were in no position to publicize the success story. It was a case of educators doing what they do best, and the domino effect that results from effective instruction.

What is Valued

Online education can solve similar problems even for those who aren’t out in the field or limited by the realities of rural life. Non-traditional students–adults, working professionals, drop-outs, parents–have long lived and worked on the margins of higher education, unable to gain the credentials to validate and certify their skills, knowledge, and experience, to fully participate or reintegrate into the professional workforce.

When schools look at these potential students not just as enrollment figures and dollar signs, but real people with real needs and a capacity to solve problems themselves, the value of a degree and a school are maximized.

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation August 9, 2016

What Teachers Need to Streamline Lessons, Assessments

Despite all of the educational technology advancements of the past decade, the connection between in-class learning and assessments remains blurry. With state standards changing by the school year in some cases, it takes a lot of work to know WHAT to teach – and even more work to make sure that knowledge is expressed by students on the assessments. Aligning lesson plans with state standards takes some strategizing, even if the teacher is well aware of the requirements. All of that takes time – a lot of it – and teachers already work an average of nearly 55 hours per week, according to a Scholastic study.

Technology has the power to shrink that workload though and there are already some edtech companies ahead of the curve.

I’ve was recently able to demo Schoology, a learning management system that enables teachers with the tools to create learning content, organize lesson plans, communicate with students, collaborate with other teachers/administrators/parents, and manage the entire learning process. This all happens from a browser-based system that teachers can access anywhere with their login credentials. Schoology has third-party integration tools, too, so teachers don’t have to create their own lesson content in a vacuum.

Screenshot 2016-08-02 17.46.19

Schoology is available at the K-12, college, and corporate levels. The platform’s implications for K-12 teachers, however, are what impressed me most. Generally speaking, the level of involvement in an individual’s education gets smaller as that person gets older. In Kindergarten, parents, teachers, administrators and other caregivers are heavily involved in the education of their young students (or should be, at least). By high school, that involvement is still existent but in less hands-on ways. College and continuing education for careers usually just involve the student and his or her determination to succeed.

K-12 teachers, then, should have the most collaboration tools at their disposal. That’s not the case, though, as K-12 educators know all too well. Schoology is the first learning management and assessment management system I’ve seen that streamlines the “whole picture” of what teachers do and need for their students to succeed. It helps that the platform is incredibly easy to use and is accessible from anywhere with an internet or data-plan connection. Screenshot 2016-08-02 17.46.41

Schoology allows:

Connection between all school members, even after the school day ends.
District wide collaboration
Global connection between educators using the Schoology platform
Integration with the systems already in place at your school
A mobile app available on any iOS, Android or Kindle device
Analytics and performance tracking that boosts decision-making power

Schoology is a one-stop platform for planning, teaching, collaborating, analyzing, and even testing.

Connecting to Assessments

Schoology takes its learning management system a step further than other platforms with its Assessment Management Platform. Essentially, Schoology employs an assessment engine that curates learning content and makes it available for assessment-building by teachers. It’s not just teachers, though. Districts can create and assign assessments within the system too, and deliver them in several language options.

There’s a lot of variety in the type of assessments educators deliver, from weekly quizzes to end-of-year exams. Schoology’s AMP addresses it all, each larger assessment unit building on the smaller one before it. It’s especially effective for district-wide required testing, as Cherry Creek Schools near Denver learned with its annual Algebra I assessment. I interviewed Cherry Creek’s District Instructional Technology Coordinator Kellie Ady for an Education Week piece and asked her specifically about the difference between the assessment pre-Schoology AMP, and post. Ady said that assigning work, testing students, and recording student progress/success was a cumbersome and disjointed process before Schoology. After participating in the beta program of Schoology, using just the Algebra I classes and assessments in the district, Ady said the process was much more streamlined. Teachers received immediate feedback and students were able to take the assessments in an interface that was comfortable and familiar.

“Moving forward, we will add more classes and assessments to the Schoology AMP. It just makes sense from an efficiency and effectiveness standpoint,” Ady said.

To learn more about Schoology’s learning management system and assessment management platform, head to Schoology’s K-12 features page.