Blended Learning Benefits STEM

This post was originally published at kpk12.com/blog on October 30, 2013.

As I was doing some professional reading this morning, I was struck by the title of Taniya Mishra’s piece “ATTN Girls: Stay Interested in STEM.” As the mother of two daughters who are both studying science in college, I had an instant personal connection to the piece. Mishra holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and works in the AT&T Labs in the Speech Algorithms and Engines Research Department. She clearly comes from a place that gives her credibility when she offers girls advice on STEM. Her advice is threefold:

• Inventory your interests - find what you are passionate about and stick with it
• Stay interested in STEM - don’t feel like you have to do what is popular and trendy; if you like STEM don’t let others woo you away
• Connect with mentors - no matter how old you are, a mentor is an invaluable resource.

But as I read the article and reflected on my daughters’ path to STEM disciplines in college, I realized that there is a piece missing in Mishra’s advice and that is advice to schools. Let me give you a little background before I share my advice for schools.

My daughters attended a suburban public school in Northeast Ohio that has consistently been rated as Excellent or Excellent with Distinction by the Ohio Department of Education. By all measures, it’s a good school with a solid core of traditional classes. The problem is that my daughters wanted more. They knew early on that their interests were veterinary medicine and aerospace engineering - not the kind of focus that you will see in most K-12 schools. But my girls, like so many, knew what they wanted and weren’t willing to settle for the status quo. This is where blended learning became vital to providing them both with the education they needed to pursue their passions..

One daughter took advantage of the Ohio Credit Flexibility law to test out of some core classes, enroll in an online advanced math class at Stanford’s Online High School, take courses at a local community college, and graduate high school in three years. The other daughter advanced herself in math by taking online courses for her foundation, advanced calculus courses from a local university, and a newly designed blended mathematics course from her high school. She graduated high school with 16 semesters of math credit. Through a combination of blended pedagogies (self-blend {a la carte}, station rotation, individual rotation) and independent study my daughters were able to create the high school curriculum that met their needs.

So, while  I wholeheartedly agree with Mishra’s advice to girls. I would be remiss if I didn’t add my own advice to schools to round out her list. It is not acceptable to only offer a core curriculum that meets the needs of some students. With blended learning, schools have access to the technology and resources to meet the unique academic needs of individual students. Schools must look at the opportunities to integrate different models of blended and online learning, in all areas of their curriculum, so that all students have an appropriately challenging curriculum that inspires them to pursue their passions After all, we’re talking about  human beings - not widgets.

Hula Hoops and Education

This post was originally published on October 18, 2013 at Keeping Pace.

I was presented with an unusual challenge this week. Every Monday I attend a fitness class with a personal trainer at a local gym. The class is generally a circuit training type of experience where we change stations every minute. There are usually about a dozen of us that attend each week. Like any good teacher, the trainer mixes things up from class to class. She says it is to keep us from getting exercise fatigue; personally I think she enjoys abusing us. This week she had a new piece of equipment, a weighted hula-hoop. We were expected to rotate the hoop, using our hips, for an entire minute. Sadly, I am one of those people who has NEVER been able to hula-hoop. Since I have been working out with this same group of people for several months, there is a deep level of trust and camaraderie amongst us - after all, we’ve seen each other without make-up. So, without reservation or embarrassment, I immediately let everyone know that I can’t hula-hoop. Like a good teacher though, the trainer wasn’t willing to let my past failures get me out of a learning (sweating) opportunity.

A few days before my hula-hoop encounter I had read an interesting article, “Entrepreneurial education must learn from start-up culture.” In this article, Afraj Gill makes the case that our educational system punishes failure, “...inhibits creativity and stifles ingenuity.” Gill talks to several diverse leaders who are known for innovation in their field and inquires how they are able to create such dynamic innovations and change in their industries. The recurring theme is that they are not afraid to take risks and are willing to accept failure as part of the change process. He then contrasts this culture of innovation to the traditional model of education where there is a consequence for failure and a general aversion to risk-taking.

Yong Zhao calls for the development of an “entrepreneurial spirit” in education in his book, World Class Learners. Zhao quotes the World Economic Forum (2011) and asserts “[i]t is not enough to add entrepreneurship on the perimeter - it needs to be at the core of the way the education operates.” Entrepreneurs look for creative solutions to problems and some even look for new problems to solve. Entrepreneurs often have more failures than successes, but they are defined by their successes. All too often in education, we allow the failures to define students and teachers. We punish the risk-takers and reward those that follow the rules. This isn’t an educational model that we can afford to maintain. As administrators we need to encourage and support teachers who are willing to adopt blended learning strategies to challenge and personalize learning for students. As teachers, we need to recognize the student who needs more time to master a concept and find ways to guide that student along the path to mastery. As educators, we need to accept that failure is a normal and vital part of the cycle of creativity and innovation.  

Gill notes that in the Silicon Valley culture “failure is success deferred, not the end of it all.” All my life I believed that I was a hula-hoop failure, a big fat “F”. But this week, because I had a trainer (teacher) willing to stand by me and support me, fellow gym rats (classmates) whom I trusted and were willing to cheer me on, and, quite honestly, nothing to lose (no grades), I went for it. I dropped the hoop immediately on my first attempt. On my second attempt I kept it up for two twirls. By the fifth attempt I was able to twirl that baby for the whole minute. I was NEVER a hula-hoop failure, I was always a hula-hooper in progress; I just needed more time to get to mastery than others. Wonder how long it will take me to become a hula-hoop dancer?

We're Talking About Human Beings - Not Widgets

This post was originally published at Keeping Pace on October 10, 2013. 

When I was in business school, many of the examples that we used centered around widgets [1], like the one pictured on the right. We would speculate how changes in the

production cycle would impact the marketability and profitability of the widget. We could retool the production machinery all we wanted and see what would happen. We could literally roll the widget dice on a whim. Actually, they weren’t even real widgets, they were simulated widgets. Sometimes our adjustments would improve the widget in some small way and other times we would desolate our widget empire. In either case, we made our changes, allowed them to run through the manufacturing cycle, evaluated our outcomes, and then went for coffee. Because, after all, these were just widgets. The next day we’d try something new and repeat the cycle.

This morning I read an article by a friend of mine, Molly Bloom. She wrote “What You Need to Know Before the Hearing on Ohio’s Anti-Common Core Bill.” Ohio, like many other states, has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Keeping Pace recently blogged about the CCSS and potential benefits in a post entitled “Common What?”. Ohio students will begin taking state assessments during the 2014-2015 school year that are based on the CCSS. This means that over the past few years school districts across Ohio have modified their core curriculum in reading, writing, and mathematics so that they aligned to the new CCSS. Districts have spent countless resources (hours and dollars) on professional development, drafting new courses of studies, and curriculum purchases aligned to the CCSS. Ohio gave no guidance on how this work should be done in the districts; they left that to local control and funding. Now, after districts have done all of this work and followed the rules the state set, HB 237 aims to impede the implementation of the CCSS in Ohio.

As I read this article I was reminded of my business school friend, the widget. Ohio adopted the CCSS and set the wheels in motion forcing districts to make changes to their curriculum (widget equivalent of the manufacturing cycle). As a the CEO of a huge

imaginary widget empire, I can’t envision a scenario where I would adopt a research-based improvement (CCSS) to my widget production, spent countless resources making changes to the production cycle (teachers, administrators, curriculum) that produced my widgets, and then at the last minute scrap the entire project just before the product was ready to roll. My board of directors would have replaced me in an instant and my dreams of becoming the widget queen would have ended abruptly. In my mind, what makes HB 237 worse is that instead of dealing with imaginary widgets, legislators are rolling the dice with real human beings [2] and not imaginary widgets. At least in business school, we evaluated our outcomes before going out for coffee. In this case a group of legislators have decided to just go out for coffee. The CCSS have been adopted, they changes have been made, let’s take the time to see where the benefits are and adjust where needed, not scrap the entire project. After all, these are human beings - not widgets.

[1] I included the picture of the widget so that younger readers wouldn’t think I was talking about web widgets, which didn’t exist when I was in business school. Enough said!
[2] I included a picture of human beings so that any legislators reading this post could see how different they are from widgets. We owe our children the best, not the constant rolling of the dice.

Reflections on LAUSD iPad Rollout

For the past few days I have read multiple news reports on the LA Unified School District’s (LAUSD) issues with students cracking their district issued iPads so that they could play games and access social media sites. The first article I read in the LA Times blazed the headline “LAUSD halts home use of iPads for students after devices hacked.” Once the district realized that the students had gained access to materials the district deemed inappropriate, they ordered all of the iPads returned to the school.  Now, I’m not surprised that the students rose to the challenge of breaking through the restrictions on the iPads, after all that’s human nature. In my mind, these students saw an obstacle and found a way around it, like a modern day version of Lewis and Clark. I’m not suggesting that they earn a reward for their efforts, but I certainly do not condone the district recalling the devices. In fact, recalling the devices strikes me as very similar to not teaching students to read or write because one day they may read or write something outside of school that someone deems inappropriate.

Instead of being reactionary, LAUSD and the students that it serves would have been better served by proactive leadership and planning.

• First, they should have provided extensive professional development for teachers. Teaching in a classroom where students have devices is an amazing opportunity for students to receive personalized education that can be highly engaging, if the teacher is knowledgeable about the technology. If, instead, the technology is just layered on top of traditional teaching methods, with no changes in pedagogy, then this is a recipe for disaster. If you want a technology initiative to succeed at least 25% of the resources should be dedicated to professional development. In a highly technological society, the most valuable asset in any classroom is still the teacher.
• Second, they should have provided digital citizenship training to students before issuing any devices. Many districts are switching to responsible use agreements (sample) in which students are expected to act responsibly when using technology. An informed student population is essential to a successful technology initiative.
• Third, LAUSD school officials should have known that most mobile device management (MDM) systems can be disabled by deleting the profile on the device (I learned this from my son when he was twelve). Many schools are overzealous with filters, firewalls, and various blocks in the name of CIPA compliance. “CIPA requires K-12 schools and libraries using E-Rate discounts to operate "a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors...".”[1] CIPA does not require wholesale blocking of social media sites or gaming. Being overzealous in the name of keeping students safe does more harm than good.
• Lastly, LAUSD school administration needed a plan to deal with individual students who had serious violations of district policies and not treated all students as though they were in the wrong. This clearly sends the message that all students will suffer educational consequences because of the actions of some students that crossed a line that the administration was too naïve to see was drawn in chalk.

I often hear people say that schools should not provide students with devices. In fact, when a local school board candidate mentioned that he would look at providing students iPads, a community member posted on Facebook the following comment “[O]ne thing I have noticed during my 30+ years in education is the fascination that the people in charge have for every new fad that comes along. These bright ideas never make the kids any smarter.”[2] This statement just shows the ignorance of some when it comes to technology in education. Devices will never make students “smarter,” instead they are the bridge that can allow teachers to provide personalized learning opportunities that are highly engaging for all students. I recently heard George Curous say “if you don’t know what a hashtag[3] is then you are becoming illiterate.” He is absolutely correct. Technology is not a fad; it is as essential to a well-rounded education as is the well-trained teacher.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Internet_Protection_Act (yes, I gladly cited Wikipedia because the FCC website is shutdown as non-essential at this time).

[2] https://www.facebook.com/pages/Medina-City-Schools-Outrage-Page/512176345494836

[3] Just added hashtag to my Word dictionary.