As you read this, students all over the country are receiving their results for state standardized exams. Schools spend up to 40% of the year on test prep, so that, shall we say, no child is left behind. Schools’ futures and funding depend on the number of students who fall into performance bands like “Advanced,” “Proficient,” and “Approaching Basic” based on bubble sheets and number two pencils.

But this is not the rant you think it is.

Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: As a former elementary, middle and high school teacher, I’m not opposed to standardized testing. Common assessments are a critical way of maintaining high expectations for all kids. Great teachers want benchmarks to measure progress and ensure that they are closing the gap between students in their classroom and the kids across town. What you measure should matter. The problem is, most American classrooms are measuring the wrong thing, and they don’t even know it.

Schools used to be gatekeepers of knowledge, and memorization was key to success. Thus, we measured students’ abilities to regurgitate facts and formulas. Not anymore. As Seth Godin writes, “If there’s information that can be recorded, widespread digital access now means that just about anyone can look it up. We don’t need a human being standing next to us to lecture us on how to find the square root of a number.”

Given this argument, many entrepreneurs see a disruptive opportunity to “democratize” education, meaning that everyone now has a platform from which to teach, and anyone can learn anything anywhere anytime. Ventures like Udacity, ShowMe, LearnZillion, and Skillshare increase the efficiency of the learning market by lowering barriers to knowledge acquisition.

Yet there is an inherent bias in the promise of these new platforms that favors extraordinarily self-directed learners.

But by itself, this “any thing/place/time” learning won’t lead to the revolution we seek. We also have the responsibility of unlocking the potential of every student because the world needs more leaders, problem-finders, and rule-breakers. Teachers are perfectly positioned to take on this challenge.

The primary purpose of teaching can now shift away from “stand and deliver” and becomes this: to be relentless about making sure every student graduates ready to tinker, create, and take initiative.

Sarah Beth Greenberg, a visionary elementary school principal in New Orleans, describes this as the balance between the art and science within teaching. The art is in the relationships you build with kids, and the science is purposeful assessment that generates real evidence of student growth. This only validates the arguments I have had with people about the three “R’s” and how the third R — relationships is the most important.

Which brings me back to my original point. Accountability is a good thing, but only when you are measuring what matters.

Dan Meyer is right when he describes today’s curriculum as “paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them.” Imagine a world where the math textbook was replaced with open-ended, thought-provoking opportunities to question the world around us. In these classrooms, students would learn how to think, how to find problems, not just plug in numbers to solve them. What if quizzes measured kids’ ability to question, not answer?

Our schools should be producing kids who tinker, make, experiment, collaborate, question, and embrace failure as an opportunity to learn. Our schools must be staffed with passionate teachers who are not just prepared to foster creativity, perseverance, and empathy, but are responsible for ensuring kids develop these skills.

Most importantly, in these schools, old-fashioned gradebooks and multiple-choice tests aren’t good enough. Teachers need better tools to track several dimensions of student progress. Kids are more than just test scores. The narrative is important, and teaching demands a new type of CRM (classroom/relationship/management) to capture anecdotal notes and evidence of student growth. Teachers must become disciplined and analytical about identifying students’ strengths and skill gaps, continuously turning classroom data into a plan of action.

Schools like this exist in the dozens, but we need them in the hundreds of thousands:

• Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia uses a project-based learning model, where the core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection are emphasized in all classes. Chris is a personal friend and does GREAT work!!!
• High schoolers who want to design software that changes lives can do so at the Academy for Software Engineering in New York City when it opens this August. Let’s see how this goes…they open in September 2012?

The school to which I’ll send my own kids hasn’t opened yet either. Why not because I am currently working on the plan and funding to open this school and then the model to replicate it around the world because I recognize that technology and increasing diversity/experiences in creativity and innovation will continue to influence our society in unpredictable ways and thus, a school must continually adapt so that students are prepared for the world they will enter as adults.
But we’re shortchanging kids if we aren’t relentless about measuring outcomes in these new models. Teachers are the linchpins here. They’re much more than just motivational coaches, they must become results-oriented diagnosticians of student learning.

Imagine a world in which all teachers were relentless about fostering that same creativity in all of their students.

2- QR Voice 

QR Code allows users to converts text-to-speech, generates QR Code for speech URL and Simplifies share text-to-speech files.

 4- Chrome speak

Chrome speak provides native support for speech on Windows (using SAPI 5), Mac OS X, and Chrome OS, using speech synthesis capabilities provided by the operating system. On all platforms, the user can install extensions that register themselves as alternative speech engines.

6- Blind Speak

BlindSpeak is a new text to voice email application that lets you convert text into speech and then forward it to any email address. The recipient will get both an MP3 file and a link to the online Flash player to play the message.

8- SpokenText

English language arts teachers may be the hardest working teachers in America’s secondary schools. This is a bold and generalized statement, but it reflects the countless hours that writing teachers spend from their personal and family time on evenings and weekends checking stacks of lengthy term papers in addition to reading ahead in the literature, preparing for upcoming lessons, and coaching speech or sports and directing the school play.Nonetheless, I am  tempted to return to a classroom now that new technology tools are making writing instruction so much more powerful and productive. My favorite is Google Documents. Every content area teacher needs the high-tech devices to be able to utilize Google Docs in class, not only English and Language Arts teachers.

Writing is a process; however, teachers historically treat it as a product. We assign a writing topic at the beginning of the week. Sometimes we may ask students to submit outlines or note cards along the way. We may discuss in class how the compositions are progressing. But then the final products are submitted on Friday for summary judgment by the teacher. And the teacher judges the product of each student’s labor.

Google Docs allows instructors to teach writing as a process. A teacher can set up a Google document for each student in his or her class. Then the teacher has access to the document. The teacher can review it periodically and coach the student through the writing process.

A teacher could follow along and check students as they work through daily writing process assignments like the ones below.

• Monday:          Students will brainstorm possible topics and create word webs.
• Tuesday:          Students will write thesis statements and rough outlines.
• Wednesday:     Students will revise their rough outlines into sentence outlines.
• Thursday:         Students will re-write their sentence outlines into paragraphs.
• Friday:             Students will add concluding paragraphs and polish final drafts of their essays.

Instead of disposing of each step in the process or handing in each to the teacher as a separate assignment, the steps could all remain in the single composition with new material added at the beginning of the doc each day.

By providing time in class daily to work on the writing process, the teacher can review the writing assignments in class, offer suggestions on word usage and syntax, and coach the students on their writing.

Moreover, if the writing assignments are monitored along the way, students will be less able to cheat. It will be harder for students to simply cut and paste an assignment belonging to someone else because teachers will be watching the writing progress. Also, students will be more likely to be on track by the end of the week. It will be hard to claim the dog ate the homework when the teacher knows what was done prior to the due date.

Finally, and AGAIN this is not just for English teachers. Reading and writing instruction is the responsibility of every teacher in the school system. I have heard too many teachers say something like, “I am a history teacher. I am only interested in how the students describe history in their papers. It is not my job to correct spelling, grammar, or word usage.” This is a flaw in our system that we have compartmentalized subject areas. It is the job of every teacher to tie all the curricular areas together.

I encourage all teachers to use these tech tools. They have the potential for turning around our criticized educational institutions. Now let us get the technology devices into the hands of our teachers so they can use these tools to teach students.

students make the most of their talents and abilities.”

Wisconsin State Superintendent of Schools, Tony Evers, struck a similar theme by noting, “Digital learning offers exciting new opportunities for more personalized learning and student engagement in every classroom….We must move forward quickly to supply sufficient affordable broadband access to every student both in school and at home.”

The Broadband Imperative is a product of collaboration among state educational technology leaders, leading technology companies, and policy and practitioner experts who every day are faced with the challenges of insufficient broadband and witness to the successes of robust access. The numerous examples in the report of successful broadband implementation by states and leading school districts illustrate the power of a fully implemented system.

Maine has long been a leader in leveraging technology for education and realizes the importance of robust broadband access. “Technology and broadband are key to giving students the power to take control of their own learning, and to engage frequently and instantly with learning tools across town and around the world. It’s why the Maine Learning Technology Initiative made high speed Internet at all public schools a requirement,” said Stephen Bowen, Commissioner of Education, Maine Department of Education.

As the report concludes, “Given that bandwidth availability determines which online content, applications, and functionality students and educators will be able to use effectively in the classroom, additional bandwidth will be required in many, if not most, K-­‐ 12 districts in this country in the coming years. If we are serious as a nation about preparing all students for college and careers, a concerted national effort will be required to address both school-­‐based bandwidth needs and out-­‐of-­‐school access for students and educators.”

To access the full report, visit: http://www.setda.org/web/guest/broadbandimperative

 

So now my take on this…Hawaii is again at the rear of the class and the initiative that was undertaken by Governor Lingle has not reached capacity nor made a difference in our schools. The private schools here in Hawaii have dedicated lines for their schools and take the fact that students need broadband speeds to access the “21st century” education setting being delivered to them. 

We cannot stress who important this is to our children in Hawaii and around the nation. If policymakers read this post and take the time to read the report they will understand how important of an issue this is to our future. 

 

About the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)

Founded in 2001, SETDA is the national member association that represents the interests of the educational technology leadership of U.S. state and territorial education agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. SETDA members work collectively and in public-­‐private partnerships to ensure that meaningful technology innovations with broad potential for systemic improvements and cost-­‐savings in teaching, learning, and leadership are brought to scale. For more information, please visit www.setda.org

Summer is almost upon us and so are thoughts of summer reading. Every year, educators look for ways to stem the tide of summer learning loss, as well as tips and tricks to keep kids and teens excited about reading. Who can help? Read Across America partners, of course!

• Summer reading tips from NEA (pdf) available in English and
• PBS Tips for Summer Reading provides resources to help parents get their kids reading
• Readkiddoread has book recommendations for all age ranges, with the goal of making kids readers for life
• LDOnline offers resources for parents and educators of children with learning disabilities
• Librarians’ Super Summer Reading Choices for Teens provides book recommendations tailored to a young adult audience
• Reading Rockets has prepared a beach bag of tips, tricks, and booklists, plus tips on finding a good summer reading program.
• Adlit.org and Teenreads.com offer booklists, author interviews, and book reviews to keep teens connected to books.
• Reading Is Fundamental has organized a “Read With Kids Challenge” with US Airways, challenging you to log your minutes.
• The National Center for Summer Learning offers research and reasons why summer learning programs are key to academic achievement.