Response to "Careful Now: 21st Century Edition" by dy/dan

This post is actually a comment that I left on dy/dan's blog entitled "Careful Now: 21st Century Edition". The comment ran on so long that I decided to post it here as well. (I also noticed a few typos that I wanted to clean up)

It was funny to see your post about 21st Century Classrooms and particularly making the transitions in Math classrooms. My own blogging for the past two days has traveled similar paths.

I’d like to first comment about Dan’s statement that the post reflects “the 21st-century-learning crowd’s total misapprehension of how students learn mathematics, particularly of how students who don’t understand mathematics at all learn mathematics.”

I think the 21st-century-learning crowd sometimes comes across this way because they’ve become accustomed to defending their positions against those who simply resist change. I’m sure there are some tech-nazis out there who insist that everything done without technology is a disservice to our students. But, most are level headed folks that encourage us to explore ways to enhance what we do using technology.

Judging from the staff development I’ve attended over the past few years, Math teachers must be the bain of the guest speaker’s existence. 95% of the sessions I’ve attended finds at least one Math teacher stating, “That’s great! But, how do I use that in Math?” There really isn’t a viable substitute for paper in Math. Not only is it difficult to write equations with fractions and exponents, there are the process steps of carrying the one and simplifying the fraction that require you to move around the problem to annotate steps you’ve taken. Interactive whiteboards, school pads, and notepads permit you to write with a “pen” just like on paper. But if its just like on paper, how is it “better”? At first, students might be more engaged because they’re playing with the new toy. When the new toy loses its new, we’re left where we started. All these items are wonderful tools and contribute to classrooms in amazing ways. As the “21st-century-learning crowd” we should never imply that teachers shouldn’t use handouts any more. And, as teachers we can’t assume that integrating technology into our classrooms means we have to use it for everything.

Jenny made an excellent point that there are aspects of other subjects, including English, that don’t lend themselves well to the use of technology. Math generally gets the most attention because it has fewer areas that can be completely taught using technology alone.

The similar Blog postings mentioned in the first paragraph are:

Does the School of the Future Buy Textbooks?
Interesting Discussion Regarding “21st Century Classrooms”.

Does the school of the future buy textbooks?

Part two of commuter conversations revolved around the concept of textbook free schools. We all found the idea rather intriguing. Like children at Christmas time, we began calculating the amount of funding that could be redirected toward enhancing the technology offerings in classrooms. It's certainly worth considering. Take for example a grade level of 225 students. Estimate textbooks at approximately $100 each. Textbook adoptions are revised about every five years. If a school purchases textbooks in the four core curriculum subjects (Math, Science, Social Studies, and English) they spend about $90,000 in a five year cycle for textbooks on one grade level. This is obviously an overly simplified scenario. Actual implementation of such a plan would require significant logistical planning, but it's certainly food for thought.

Excellent resource by Scott Elias on presenting.

Scott Elias' "Presentation on Presenting" provides excellent advice to teachers who find themselves struggling to keep students engaged with their slide presentations. The presentation provides excellent concrete guidelines and clear strategies to avoid the pitfalls of Powerpoint.

My school purchased data projectors for almost every classroom in the school this year. The 8th grade Math teachers have worked together to create powerpoint presentations to replace the normal notetaking practice. Regretably we have committed many of the faux pas that Scott wards against. I suspect that I will revisit his document many times in the coming weeks in an effort to clean up some bad presentation habits. It has been very defeating to spend hours creating presentations that my students insist on sleeping through. Thank you for the excellent post Scott.

As an aside, I think that I will post a before and after presentation once I've implemented Scott's recommended strategies.

Got started with a couple of my NCETC inspired initiatives today.

I created a wikispaces wiki page today. The URL is http://WMSMath.wikispaces.com. I chose to create a protected wiki since the purpose of the wiki is to provide a centralized location for Walkertown Middle School math teachers to share resources and collaborate. I may even need to part with a little cash and establish it as a private wiki. I'm a little concerned with posting some of the items that we've included in our powerpoint presentations this year. Some of our examples were copied directly from our textbook software. In the meantime, I think we will simply replace the copied examples with original creations.

The other project that I've begun working on is the video to teach slope. As I've stated in an earlier post, I was very impressed with Lee Lefever's "Wikis in Plain English" video that David Warlick showed in his presentation "The Art And Technique Of Wikis" at NCETC on November 28, 2007. I've decided to do my slope video using powerpoint. I've started developing some ideas and implementing the animations. It's going to be a lot of work, but I am hoping to have a quality finished product when I'm done. I will put a copy of what I've accomplished periodically on the new wiki page so that everyone can see the progress.