The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has just released this report focusing on sustainable changes to today’s education infrastructure that will allow us to modernize and meet the challenges facing today’s graduates in a global economy.  Bill Gates, a stranger to few, has done extensive philanthropic work in this field and is making immense strides toward education reform.  Although he faced mild criticism for his education in ‘08 efforts, it at least hit the radars and received mentions in the media, if not in the presidential campaign.

At any rate, this report is worth mentioning, not because it reiterates technology’s utility in education, but because it gives a comprehensive view of what reforms are needed, in addition to adding technology, to making it all work together.

Data and information.   If we are going to help the nation
reach this ambitious goal, we need better information and data to tell
us if we’re making progress…Without better
data, educators, students, and policymakers lack the information
they need to make good decisions that will support and reinforce a
commitment to completion.

Although automating these features will be difficult (think essays and reports) a great deal such as T/F and multiple choice answers on tests can be automated (no news to the standardized testing community) which will save time for teachers for other areas of concern.

And then this part of interest as well.  Innovation, as Bill Gates of all people understands, will be crucial if we are to move the ball forward in education in the 21st century.

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For those who have not read it, Children’s Learning in a Digital World, is a fantastic compendium of articles by educators and experts in the technology field.  Blending firsthand accounts of what works and why technology in the classroom is so important, the book is a road map to policymakers and educators across the globe.

In general the themes of the book are that technology, once its effects are understood properly, will transform education for the better, but that much more research is needed on the actual learning outcomes and cognitive effects of technology on children. This is so that we know how we are permitting the next generation to develop.

Moreover, what I found most interesting, is the focus on the psyschological makeup of a student’s mind and how they, as digital natives, are wired just a bit differently.  Because students face an environment that emphasizes technology, there is significant research presented in this book that points to the use of technology to reach kids who might otherwise not respond to their school work.  As the review mentions:

There is no doubt that technology has a profound effect on cognitive development. It has been shown elsewhere that symbols and number words are essential for sophisticated mathematical cognition, that objects can help and hinder concept acquisition, and here Swing and Anderson convince us that videogames can modulate aggression.

There are some things better left to the author, however, I would like to add one piece of commentary on this piece.  For years, decades, perhaps even centuries, teachers have been overburdened with a multitude of tasks that drive them away from what they are really best at doing: teaching.  From grading papers and tests, drawing up lesson plans and feeding the beast that is bureaucracy, teachers have enough on their hands before they even step foot into a classroom and confront the endless challenges inherent in that structure.  The quote below emphasizes this point.  So what if we did away with those challenges?  Or at the very least minimized them so that the core function of a teacher, teaching, is left free and uninhibited to meet students with their learning?

Meanwhile part two, there are certain parts of the assessment we don’t have to administer if our students already demonstrated “mastery,” only I don’t know who did and who didn’t because they took all my data to input it and never gave it back to me. And the data comes in booklets that are supposed to be re-used with each student so I can’t assess anyone because I don’t have those booklets. And everyone at my school passes the buck, because it’s all about who you take your orders from and who issued the rule, so when I timidly went to check with my administrator, she said she would refer my question to the literacy coach, who never got back to me because she never gets back to anyone and then blames it on TC. Meanwhile part three, the memo (because the memo is gospel, and we all stood around trying to analyze it like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls) said that the assessment was to be administered “during independent reading time,” which makes it sound like we’re supposed to conduct a mini lesson, which is — how do I put this delicately? — effing ridiculous because that spelling assessment takes, at minimum, one full period to conduct. And oh, woe, do you remember how long I spent grading these things last time? The horror!

For this Oregon school, making drastic changes is an existential concern as state charter authorizers continually look for progress, or failures in their charter schools.  At the Fern Ridge School District, these concerns are real and, as this article notes, OdysseyWare is helping on the curriculum side in a big way.

“That has become a struggle, when I have conversations with kids who are struggling academically, some say that it’s something in the back of their minds — this is an option,” Carpenter said, adding that sharing the campus contributes to the problems.

Woody said the center’s staff recognized a problem two years ago and made a curriculum change. The coursework — mostly OdysseyWare online curriculum — is considerably deeper and more challenging now, he said.

As a result, and due to major changes throughout the rest of the school district, this school might make it.

One of the leading producers of print, text material, Cambridge University Press, has expounded that online learning is the future of education in the world and that because educators, students and parents are adapting, so should industry.

“We will see a much more widespread use of computers and the internet when the now teenagers grow into adults and enter the workforce in our societies, ” said Boughton. “They are well versed in computer and internet usage. To them, digital learning comes naturally. They are the so-called digital natives.”

This should not be understated.  The producer of materials throughout the world, first purchasing book materials in the 16th century, is now telling us that online learning is the future of education?  This is wild.

As a corollary to the story posted below, students now have the option of “virtual meetings” with their teachers to go over issues or items in the curriculum that they do not understand.  For those that remember what office hours generally were like, typically, scheduling a meeting with a teacher for 30 minute blocks, yet competing for times with fellow students, this is a welcome change.  Now, a teacher has the option of meeting with multiple students while addressing common misunderstandings in the curriculum, all while avoiding the redundancy of repeating those explanations to multiple students.

Virtual meetings are gaining popularity in higher education for a number of reasons, officials say. Off-campus students can have their questions answered without having to drive to campus, meeting times are more flexible, and professors can sit down with many students simultaneously, instead of penciling in students for 15 minutes of individual help before the next appointment begins.

But what is the staying power of such an option?  Will students truly eschew face-to-face meetings in favor of the less formal, less human aspect of virtual meetings?  The gas crisis and subsequent drop in prices might presage this answer:

Virtual meetings were more popular than ever when gas prices topped $4 earlier this year, Willy said. With gas dipping to near $2 a gallon, the prospect of a 30-mile round trip for a short meeting with a professor is not quite as daunting, but most students still prefer computer-based meetings, she said.

Students at the University of Alabama will have the opportunity to live their normal class life through the prism of the online gaming tool, Second Life.  Explaining it this way, professors at the University of Alabama believe that giving the students the virtual realm of learning and allowing them to visit professors and attend classes through the comfort of their dorm rooms will increase interest and, potentially, attendance.

“With the V Generation — the Virtual Generation — students coming into universities these days are very comfortable in a virtual environment. Learning in this environment is very easy …” said Houser, who has been hosting online courses for more than five years. “There are so many neat and interesting things you can do with this. I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Attendance in large university classrooms is generally optional with grades rarely reflecting punctuality and “being there” factors.  The divergence with grade schools in this sense is sharp.  However, once a student is able to drop out (based upon statutory laws)  they might change their minds based upon flexibiltiy in where and how they attend their high school classes.

Technology, like innovations in any other field, can be a disruptive force for the good, claims this author.

First, take a look at history: In the 1950s, the key technological innovation was the television–and the media expression of it was broadcasting in the 1960s. In the 1980s, it was the client server that led to the media expression of the World Wide Web of the 1990s. Earlier this decade, peer-to-peer file sharing and online social networks emerged, and perhaps in the next decade, sites like Twitter will be the definitive media expression.

Technology, and online curriculum by extension, can be a powerful, positive force for improving education, making life in the classroom easier for already overworked teachers and that much more interesting for digital natives.  Getting the buy in from parents and teachers will be the most difficult part of full implementation, however, according to the author:

But it’s not just students who get all the fun, according to Steve Hargadon, director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking, and founder of www.classroom20.com.

Hargadon developed his social networking site for educators as a way to get educators used to the idea of social networking not always as a scary, educationally empty phenomenon.

“We have to look at the tools and the devices behind popular technologies. Just because bad things sometimes happen on Facebook doesn’t mean the technology itself can’t be useful. It just depends how it’s used,” he said.

That will ultimately be the test, and the opportunity, for making education truly incoporated in the classroom.

Business and education leaders have become concerned that students are not prepared for a 21st century economy that stresses independent thinking and critical skills such as analysis and strategic planning.

“Integrating 21st-century skills into teaching and assessment … is not only an economic imperative, driven by changes in the workforce, but a vital aspect of improving student learning,” says “Measuring Skills for the 21st Century,” a white paper scheduled for release Nov. 10 by the Washington-based think tank Education Sector.

Education Sector’s paper (available here) describes the enormous challenge facing today’s educators.

This new reality applies to all children in the United States, not just an elite class of students. Nearly every segment of the workforce now requires employees to know how to do more than simple procedures—they look for workers who can recognize what kind of information matters, why it matters, and how it connects and applies to other information.

Politicians and policy makers throughout the country have paid lip service to the idea of reforming education and taking on many of the challenges that our educational system faces.  As this opinion article notes, the challenges have been historic and are mounting as we enter a digital century.

Recent damaging effects of the dual-party “know-nothing” approach to issues make it painfully clear: Comprehensive review of our educational system is now by far the highest priority demanded for our 21st Century America.

But what the author, and many critical thinking people have always returned to as the historic problem, funding, can be overcome with the effective use of cost effective, efficient delivery of technology.

Definitive and desperately needed additional funding –always a roadblock previously– can be found first in the actual dollar-savings explicit in effective uses of modern technology.

Class-size and learning-process –bugaboos and progress-breakers for decades– no longer need shape the learning-surround in any learning group, with truly individualized learning an honest and open process now easily provided by digital delivery.

And it is with that promise, that hope, education can be effectively and evenly delivered to students throughout the country, regardless of socioeconomic background.