Andrew Busch

I've been attending edtech conferences for a couple of years now. I consider myself tech savvy; I understand what things can and cannot do. I'm mostly up to date on the latest GAFE news and what's new in the world of math ed tech. I've used a single iPad in class since the iPad 2 came out.

What's new for me is having students with computers available at all times. New as of this school year. I'm still trying to figure it out. Gone are the days of checking out the chromebook cart. There are no more trips down to the computer lab. It's lovely. And intimidating. Now that my students have the tech, I feel obligated to use it. 

My questions are how much, how often, and do do what?

To try and find out, I attended ISTE 2016 in Denver. For those of you who don't know, ISTE is a huge (picture The Donald saying it) educational technology conference. Think big conference, now think bigger. 16,000 people. 

Maybe it's just me, but when I attend edtech conferences, I think "this is fricking amazing!" Then when I get home, I'm like "meh". This year I'm determined. Even though school is almost two months in. I'm determined to do something with tech.

I've thought a lot about blended classrooms or flipped classrooms. I tried flipping 4 years ago for a couple chapters. It crashed and burned. Badly. I assigned videos as homework and we did what would normally be considered homework in class. Students didn't watch the videos. I had difficulty holding them accountable. They wanted me to reteach the video material in class. I missed our rich classroom conversations. I missed exploring ideas together. I decided flipping wasn't for me. 

At ISTE, I attended a session called "Blended Learning Classrooms: Pedagogies, Skills and Tools for Teaching - ISTE 2016". The panel session had some rock stars of ed tech and was moderated by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher. Here was the panel: Thomas Arnett @arnettTom, Jon Bergmann @jonbergmann, Mike Gwaltney @mikegwatlney, Aaron Sams @chemicalsams, Stephane Sandifer @ssandifer, and Jerry Overmyer @jerryovermyer. 

They talked about all sorts of things: 
-Videos are only a piece of the flipped classroom.
-The goal is to create an active classroom by removing all direct instruction from the classroom.
-Going blended classroom is not about the tech. It’s about changing a culture.
-No tech for tech’s sake.
-Why do you want to go 1 to 1? We want to transform the learning experience.
-Don’t just digitize content. Transform what happening in the classroom.
-Redefining how vs what to teach.
--Who has the power in the relationship? Let go of control. Students need to have a say in what’s going on in school.

I found the conversation on individual spaces vs group spaces fascinating:
    -The individual space
        -is now where you get instruction
        -there is still a place for direct instruction
        -at student pace
        -semi-moderated
        -students get individualized instruction
    -The group space
        -engagement
        -activity
        -discussion
        -experiments
        -inquiry
        -projects

This all sounds great doesn't it? Here's my push-back--How does this improve what I'm already doing in the classroom? How does this increase relationship with my students? How does this increase student engagement? How does this help my students think deeply about the math?

We don't often have lectures in my class. We intro a new topic by talking about what we notice. We make conjectures about how things might behave. We do experiments and try to create math models to predict what will happen next. We talk about each others' work and reflect on how we could do things better. 

How are videos going to help me do that? How are Google Forms or Slides going to help me do that? How is a Learning Management System (LMS) like Google Classroom or Schoology or Moodle going to help me do that better? If I'm already pushing my classes towards inquiry-based learning, rich tasks, experiments and classroom discussions, do I need to make videos? Do I need to shift content online? Is students handing in electronic work that I need to grade better than them handing me a paper? Everything I'm hearing in Ed Tech over the last 5 years seems to say 'yes'. 

I've not found a compelling answer to those questions. If you're a math teacher who is rocking out the tech, I'd love to chat with you about how the day-in day-out tech use of your class works. Seriously. Please. 

This year we got a new curriculum complete with all the online bells and whistles. I started using some of the online quizzes that auto grade student work. My students hated them. No joke. They begged me to go back to paper and pencil where they feel like they can show me what they know without a computer getting in the way. I didn't expect that.

You know what I really want? I want to shake this guilty feeling that there's a better way to do this teaching gig.

In a rather surprising turn of events, in the last month, our school has gone from gearing up on the possibility of going 1 to 1 with iPads at the high school to abandoning the idea completely. Of all the school-owned device options we've looked at iPads were most affordable and we thought had really good potential educational benefits. But after talking with schools who use them, we don’t think they’re worth the money. The iPads are just too limiting in what they can do. (See my last post for students’ opinions of iPads vs laptops)

Transferring media on and off is a hassle. I just spoke to a math teacher in Traverse City yesterday who is doing video assessments of his students. He loves the idea, but getting student-created content off the iPads has been an issue all year.

Mobile Safari’s lack of flash support hurts terribly. I don’t know how many people have told me flash is dead but that’s not the reality I see around me. Much of the free inquiry-based interactive content on the internet is flash. In three years that might change. In three years iPads may be a good fit for our school.

Teacher’s are unfamiliar with the tool and feel uncomfortable and unsure about how to utilize it effectively. This isn’t just a professional development issue as some suggest. Changing pedagogy simply to incorporate technology is bad practice. The technology must fill some need in the classroom or it’s just an expensive way to buy student interest. Please understand I’m a strong proponent of tech in the classroom but not if it’s forced. Sometimes paper and pencil really is a better option than Penultimate. Sometimes asking for a show of hands or using individual marker boards is better than using Poll Everywhere.

It looks like small laptops aren’t the answer either. Traverse City isn’t thrilled with their laptops. They’re too small (11 inch) to do what the teacher’s want them to do; students constantly end up scrolling back and forth across the page. 13 inch models worth getting are out of our price range as a school (you do get what you pay for).

So… that leaves us with the BYOD (bring your own device) option. I’m not thrilled with the idea more from the financial standpoint of parents. BYOD is an increase in tuition. There’s no way around it. However, it’s also financially sustainable from the school’s point of view. I wonder what these local public schools are going to do when the bond money runs out. In order to make it work, we would need to specify minimum device requirements, give parents purchasing recommendations, and get community buy-in before attempting to do anything. If technology is just an add-on or a way for us to keep up with the local public school, then I would vote against it. As an school community, we need to agree on a vision for education and the role technology plays in implementing that vision.

If you are 1:1 in your school, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.