Tech Expo’s Provocative Keynote Speaker Delivers Much-Anticipated Talk

The annual Tech Expo 2014, held April 11, drew close to 400 educators from a myriad of local school districts, many of them eager to hear education historian Diane Ravitch deliver a keynote on the importance of technology in education as well as recent developments in education policy.

Diane Ravitch delivers the keynote at Tech Expo 2014

She was among several other speakers and presenters to participate in the Tech Expo, sponsored by the LHRIC's Technology Leadership Institute and held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

Ms. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, an influential blogger and a contributing writer at the Huffington Post, said she is a fan of what teachers can do with technology in the classroom. “Technology can really inspire what we all want, which is the joy of learning.”

For centuries, educators have dreamed of such a learner-centered environment, which has become a reality for many of today’s students, said Ms. Ravitch, as they learn by using a variety of emerging tools in the classroom.

The emergence of technology shows the true “realities of life,” allowing students to take ownership of what they learn, in addition to fostering a new level of creation, invention and imagination, she added.

“What I envisioned is a world of open source learning led not only by teachers but also by students,” said Ms. Ravitch. “If you think students are dumb these days because of it (technology), please take the eight grade math test.”

A Hijacked Technology Revolution

This revolution has, however, been hijacked by entrepreneurs and policy makers seeking to standardize the curriculum through corporate-influenced school reform and the desire to create a “lucrative marketplace for profitable enterprise.”

The federal government’s control of the states’ educational policy matters has created a situation that Ms. Ravitch said would have been “unthinkable 10 years ago,” a situation that is unprecedented in the nation’s history, with pressure coming from Washington that urges states and, consequently, school districts to do more with less.

While New York State, she contends, is in “pretty good shape,” other states across the country, such as Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania, to name a few, are experiencing turmoil and the kind of disruption that is not good for children or for learning, she noted.

As a result, the destruction of the public school system and its ultimate privatization is becoming a reality. “I presume your communities here in Westchester are strong enough to handle this, but watch out,” she told the crowd, many of them members of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents, who later attended a private meeting with Ms. Ravitch.

Referring to the “wild, unrealistic goal of 100 percent proficiency” that has permeated the public education system since the creation of the No Child Left Behind policy in 2001 and the “more onerous” Race to the Top initiative, Ms. Ravitch added that such an aspiration is unrealistic and one that no nation in the world could ever achieve.

Such proficiency measures have since been turned over to private management, she said, with little research to support them. While testing is good for the testing companies, it does little for children and the quality of education, Ms. Ravitch added. “When it takes the place of instruction and the arts and play, it’s wrong.”

The Danger of the Growing Charter School Industry

Ms. Ravitch, the author of several books, including the newly-released “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools,” took particular aim at the growing charter school movement, in particular the Success Academy charter chain run by CEO Eva Moskowitz.

Such charter schools, she said, have been able to take up free space in several public schools in New York City, pushing out students with disabilities and other disadvantaged public school students.

And if the owners of the charter school industry claim their existence is based on raising the test scores of American students, Ms. Ravitch countered that national test scores, together with graduate rates, have actually risen over the past four years − across all races, and dropout rates are at their lowest. Such statistics, she said, can be found on the federal Department of Education’s website.

Millions of dollars will continue to be spent by school districts on professional development efforts and on iPads and tablets that are a requirement of the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) online tests, an initiative that is closely aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Many of those machines, she added, will come preloaded with content that is copyrighted by companies such as Pearson Education and others.

“We’re at a turning point,” said Ms. Ravitch. “Will there be more charters to drive funding from public schools, will teachers be free to teach with creativity and passion, will they be able to teach without following a scripted curriculum?”

“We are trapped by a love of data. This is the thinking of a world that is far too flat for me. Don’t let them flatten you.”

To follow Ms. Ravitch on her daily blog, visit www.dianeravitch.net.

TLI Experts Tout Way to Prepare Students for 21st Century

Failing to apply the advanced technologies that are being used in everyday life to the school environment and overlooking the connection between such useful, affordable technological tools and good teaching is what education experts Dr. Chris Dede and Rushton Hurley believe is still missing from today's schools.

Dr. Christopher Dede speaks at the Jan. 10 TLI event

Dr. Dede, a Timothy E. Wirth professor in learning technologies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, and Mr. Hurley, executive director of Next Vista for Learning, served as keynote speakers at the LHRIC's Jan. 10 Technology Leadership Institute event held at the Edith Macyin Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

In his talk titled, "Transforming Education for the 21st Century," Dr. Dede explained the challenges educators face and ways they can address them. Learning, he explained, can no longer be confined to the years that students spend in school or the hours they spend in the classroom. "It must be lifelong, life-wide and available in demand."

"What happens outside of the classroom in students' lives looks a lot like 21st century work as opposed to what happens inside the current classroom," added Dr. Dede, who served on the technical working group that helped craft the 2010 National Educational Technology Plan.

Dr. Dede suggested that the concept known as Digital Teaching Platforms (DTP) might provide the kind of technology support that would help teachers engage students.

The initiative is a category of products designed to bring interactive technology to teaching and learning in classrooms. Dr. Dede said it supports real-time, teacher-directed interaction where students and instructors all have laptops and are working together in a networked digital environment.

So, instead of passively watching an educational clip on their devices, students could become actively immersed. A good example is the work he and his colleagues at Harvard are doing with students in the Cambridge Public Schools.

The curriculum research project, known as EcoMUVE, uses multi-user virtual environments that look and feel like video games, but engage students in authentic ecological settings that teach them about ecosystems.

The use of such programs teaches enquiry skills, therefore honing the interpersonal and interpersonal skills that students will need later on in their careers, explained Dr. Dede.

Virtual performance assessments are also possible with this type of learning, he added. In fact, one of the important aspects of DTP is that there are opportunities to exploit the power of technology for formative assessment. That same technology that supports the learning is also gathering data on how students are using it. "Almost second-by-second, learners are being watched as the system identifies where they wander off track, alerting the teacher as a result," Dr. Dede explained.

This type of assessment, as opposed to summative assessment strategies, provides more leverage for improvement, he noted. "The digital curriculum, if it has this kind of diagnostic assessment built into it, can be much more informative for teachers."

Rushton Hurley speaks at the Jan. 10 TLI event.

Much like Dr. Dede, Mr. Hurley also sees the need to embrace technology in new ways. Part of the issue with many school systems, and indeed with teachers, he said, is their inability to deal with the rapid pace of technological change.

"A lot of people experience fear and stress, which seem to be the dominant emotions in relation to technology," said Mr. Hurley in his talk titled, "Evolving Technologies, Expanding Possibilities."

Why? Because many of them have a fear of something going wrong when a technology is implemented. But getting over that fear and allowing technology to be embraced is key, he noted.

Students who say that school is boring are often confusing the word "boring" with predictability, said Mr. Hurley. "Kids don't learn squat when they know what's coming up, but unpredictability can be a fascinating thing and a way to catch their attention, and technology allows that to happen in really, really interesting ways."

Accessing the plethora of free online tools that are currently available to teachers is a way of erasing the predictability that so many students experience on a daily basis, he said.

Mr. Hurley encouraged participants, many of them school district administrators, to give their teachers a reason to love technology. "Use what's freely available, gather feedback, show them that you will follow through, celebrate excellence, share what you're doing and build a shared vision."

To find out more about Dr. Dede's work, visit http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=chris_dede&pageid=icb.page362000. Mr. Hurley provides teachers with great resources at his website, http://www.nextvista.org.

Leadership Expert Touts "Learning Science" as Solution for School Districts

Seeing education through the lens of “learning science” is what leadership expert Dr. Frederick M. Hess believes educators and school district administrators should be doing as they look for ways to enhance learning.

Dr. Frederick Hess speaking at the
Tech Summit Nov. 1.

Dr. Hess, an educator and co-author of the book, “Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age: Using Learning Science to Reboot Schooling,” shared this and other insights during a keynote presentation delivered at the LHRIC’s inaugural Summit 2013 held Nov. 1 at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

The event was intended to highlight the many vendors who work with the LHRIC and local school districts.

By learning science, Dr. Hess does not mean brain science or neuroscience. “That stuff is too far removed from working with the challenges of kids,” he noted. It is about tapping into the existing body of cognitive science and using it to identify where the old schoolhouse idea of American education reformist Horace Mann fell short, said Dr. Hess, and looking at new tools as ways to solve particular learning challenges.

Computer-assisted tutoring models, such as the Khan Academy, ClassDojo, New Classrooms, MasteryConnect and LearnZillion are all good examples, he added.

Despite the availability of legitimate learning tools, however, Dr. Hess believes that tech companies often have a tendency to overly promote the value of such tools in the classroom. “The stuff is cool, but the excitement is a little disconcerting given that educational technology always seems ripe with promise, yet has rarely delivered,” he added.

He cited the experiences of district officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District who halted the home use of district-issued iPads earlier this year after discovering students had hacked them and were using the devices for personal use.

In many ways, it’s not about the technology itself, said Dr. Hess, but the way that educators think about it and what they do with it. “We tend not to be imaginative and smart,” he noted. “We say we need more money, more staff and more professional development, and then we put a lot of technology in schools and wait for the magic to happen, and it doesn’t happen.”

What matters more, said Dr. Hess, is what skilled hands can do with the technology that is available to students these days. Three myths that usually get in the way of advancement in this area include the notion that technology is anti-teacher, that schools need more of it, meaning they won’t transform unless certain initiatives are implemented, and that the next generation of technology gadgets and know-how will make a difference.

A “technology” that transformed teaching and learning several hundreds years ago was the book, said Dr. Hess. The book had two powerful assets, he added. First, its introduction meant that students were no longer hostages to the knowledge of their teachers, and secondly, they could learn from experts all around the world, meaning they didn’t have to depend on school to obtain knowledge.

“There is no magic power in the book,” said Dr. Hess. “What matters is what we do with it. Everything we are talking about today, including new assessment systems, new tutoring systems and virtual delivery, all of these are variations on what books have done for us.”

One way to rethink the integration of technology is to stop looking at technology as a way of “reforming” or “fixing” schools and instead to look at it as a “learning science,” he said.

For more about Dr. Hess’s work, visit his website at www.frederickhess.org.

LHRIC's Inaugural Tech Summit Draws Region's Educators

Many of the LHRIC’s technology vendors came together Nov. 1 for Tech Summit 2013 to highlight the various products and services that are currently being used by local school districts to help transform learning.

Executive Director Dr. Dennis Lauro
welcomes local school district
representatives to the inaugural Tech
Summit

Held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, the event included the following companies: Achieve 3000, Aerohive Networks, Annese, Aruba Networks, Atlantic, Aztec, Bump Armor, Castle Learning Online, CDWG, Cisco, Day Automation, Dell, Dice Communications, eChalk, eSchool Data, Finance Manager, HP, IBM, Infinite Campus, K12Alerts, Learning3.com, New Paltz State University of New York, One Vision, Pearson Education, Questar Assessment, Inc., Linkit!, Smart Technologies, Strategic Measurement & Evaluation, Inc., Stratagem Security, Vandis and Verizon Wireless.

In addition to learning from the various vendors, participants also had a chance to hear some thought-provoking ideas from a number of speakers, including Dr. Frederick M. Hess, an educator and co-author of the book, “Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age: Using Learning Science to Reboot Schooling.”

Other spotlight talks included “Getting Googley on the iPad” and “Google Forms and Data Collection,” both delivered by Dr. Christopher Craft, a Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer, a Google Certified Teacher and recipient of ISTE’s Making IT Happen Award 2009.

Steve Dembo, director of social media strategy and online community at Discovery Education, gave a lively talk titled, “22^nd Century Skills: Bringing Future Technology into the Classroom,” as well another presentation on finding innovative ways to use technology to increase classroom learning.

Plenty of resources and cutting-edge information was available to Tech Summit participants throughout the day, with several breakout sessions on various topics.

They included an update on the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessments and how to prepare for computer-based testing, designing a secure campus, how to prepare a network for mobile advices, the educational uses of 3D printing, inspiring students through the power of the iPad, new trends in distance learning, electronics and display technology, and much more.

TLI - Pioneer Awards Recognize Districts' Achievements in Technology

The Lower Hudson Regional Information Center chose two local school districts, a director of technology and an enthusiastic third-grade teacher as the recipients of its Annual Pioneer Awards, now in its 20^th year.

The awards ceremony, held May 16 in the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, gives the LHRIC an opportunity to showcase the efforts of educators and administrators who go above and beyond to make 21^st century instructional technology available to students.

It also honors school districts for embracing technology, including their willingness to use mobile devices to enhance the curriculum, their focus on data management and safety, as well as their professional development efforts and more. 

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at what it took for each of this year's recipients to make it to the winner's podium:

Amy Rosenstein, Ardsley School District

Students in Amy Rosenstein's class at Concord Road Elementary School in the Ardsley School District are savvy about the world around them, and it's not because they've traveled the globe. In fact, the students don't have to leave their classrooms at all. Ms. Rosenstein brings it all to them through regular Skype conversations with people abroad, including famous authors and others. 

About four years ago, Ms. Rosenstein came up with the idea when she was thinking about ways to stay in touch with a friend who had moved to Hong Kong. Around that time, the third grade curriculum was changing, with a more detailed focus on China.

After the first couple of Skype sessions, Ms. Rosenstein could see the students were really enjoying the interaction, so she decided to expand it by inviting authors on a Skype call, one of which was Robert Kimmel Smith, the author of "War with Grandpa," a book the students had been reading in class.

That collaboration turned into the self-publication of their own realistic fiction stories using the website Storyjumper and the subsequent purchase of the digital books by parents and others.  

"The experience for the kids has been phenomenal," said Ms. Rosenstein, upon receiving her award. "It has not only opened up the classroom, but it has also made them realize that the world is bigger than Ardsley, even New York, and that they are now global citizens."

Ms. Rosenstein has connected students to people in Albania, Brazil, England, France, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand and Sweden, and she has also shared her enthusiasm for Skype with other teachers in the school by providing after-school technology classes and other initiatives.

John Krouskoff, Clarkstown School District

The Clarkston School District's director of technology, John Krouskoff, accepted his Pioneer Award not purely as a reflection of his own efforts but based on what he described as a "lot of teamwork."

The affable administrator was happy to accept the award, but even happier to be among a roomful of what he described as "innovators and leaders" who not only make the technology work in the classroom but who also challenge the students to reap the benefits of it. In addition to promoting 21^st century learning, Mr. Krouskoff said, "We have the responsibility as leaders to really make things happen."

Part of what Mr. Krouskoff has made happen in Clarkstown is the creation of a Google Apps environment throughout the district. As recently as a year ago, students would have saved their work to a network drive, accessible only within district buildings.

Now they can save their homework and other projects to a cloud, creating a seamless transition from school to home while at the same time enhancing the collaborative nature of the learning and making it a fun and creative experience.

Mr. Krouskoff is also a proponent of teacher professional development, being readily available to instructors at all times and letting them know that the teacher environment is the first place where transformational technology takes hold.

Dobbs Ferry School District

Coming a long way in two years, with the installation of a wireless network in all three district schools, the use of smart phones by middle and high school students and a robust professional development strategy for teachers was the basis for awarding the Dobbs Ferry School District with a well-deserved Pioneer Award.

Superintendent Dr. Lisa Brady accepted the award on behalf of the district, reiterating the importance of technology advancement as a "moral obligation" in meeting the needs of students.

The district's transition to a student one-to-one computing environment began with an instructional technology audit that provided some really good data from students, teachers and administrators on their technology use, proficiencies, expectations and practices.

Simply training teachers on new MacBooks was not enough, though. It was also vitally important that instructors acquire a true comfort and ease in using the technology, something that would help them create engaging lessons for students and also get them excited about their own exploration of technology.

iPads for kindergarten classes through the third grade were purchased as well as tablets for the social studies and science departments at the middle and high schools. Social media channels were also created and administrators and other staff were encouraged to start using them.

The most important aspect of the district's growth is to "model what we expect from teachers and to give them the time to create 21^st century classrooms," added Dr. Brady.

Ossining Union Free School District

A ubiquitous technology environment in the Ossining Schools and the way that administrators implement it and teachers use it was the basis for providing the district with the second of the LHRIC's District Pioneer Awards.

Even students in the district's pre-kindergarten classes are using technology, specifically the Educreations app, an interactive whiteboard that captures a student's voice and handwriting. In the middle school, Makey Makey is a popular program that teaches students how to design circuits, and at the high school, students are creating competition-ready robots.

The LHRIC's panel of judges was also impressed by the district's many partnerships with outside entities, including the Jacob Burns Center, IBM, Pace University and the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture.

Through those affiliations, second-graders have created public service announcements centered on sustainability projects they developed, older children in the elementary grades have used a "green screen" to animate sections of a documentary they created on their iPads, and middle school students have learned to program computers in a 3D environment, among other creative endeavors.

Superintendent Ray Sanchez said the district's technology team is continuously seeking ways to leverage technology throughout the grades. He credited Director of Technology Jeremy Luft and Assistant Director of Technology Jennifer Forsberg for putting the district on the "proper path and navigating the ever-changing world of technology."

TLI – Tech Expo Draws Educators Looking for Inspiration and New Ideas

Approximately 300 people attended the LHRIC's annual Tech Expo April 5, an event that attracted teachers and administrators from dozens of local school districts as well as vendors from 21 educational technology companies.

Dr. Yong Zhao speaks at Tech Expo 2013.

Dr. Yong Zhao, an internationally known scholar, author and speaker kicked off the day-long event with an entertaining talk on creativity in education, or more importantly, the lack of it.

In his presentation titled, "Global, Creative and Entrepreneurial: Defining and Delivering High Quality Education with Technology," he questioned the idea of creativity and if indeed it applied to today's education system.

"In human history for a long time we didn't have a need for it and in fact most of the time we don't use it," added Dr. Zhao, author of over 20 books, including "Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization" and "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students."

Surprisingly, Dr. Zhao is not always a fan of creativity, especially when it comes to some of modern society's inventions, like high-rise cities in his native China where pollution is at its highest.

But, he conceded, creativity is needed when it comes to shaping an education system that intends to adequately prepare students for the 21^st century working world.

"America has been one of the worst education systems in terms of homogenizing kids, and the Common Core is trying to make sure our children are homogenous, not creative," Dr. Zhao added, referring to the Common Core Standards that states across the country will be implementing in the months and years to come.

Because of the changing economy and as a result, the shrinking middle class, Dr. Zhao said students must acquire different talents, skills and affinities. "Traditionally, we did not need people to express their individual talents," said Dr. Zhao. "But in a new age, we have to because special talents can be very powerful and useful."

The spotlight speakers included Travis Allen, founder of the iSchool Initiative, a student-led, non-profit organization dedicated to revolutionizing the education system through innovative technologies.

In his presentation, "Becoming a Mobile Learner," Allen described his journey into the world of digital technology, from playing video games as a child to quickly adapting to social media after acquiring his first smart phone at age 16. Allen recalled "doing everything" with his phone, quickly realizing there was a "huge gap between education and real world experience."

At the time, there were no cell phones allowed in Allen's Georgia high school, and Allen still believes this is true today. "They are bound to four walls and a desk and they are killing creativity," he said. "The current education system is built on an outdated and antiquated model that fails to account for the different learning styles of today's digital natives."

While still a high school student, Allen spent four months making a YouTube video about his beliefs, talking about where he felt education could go if mobile learning was allowed to take hold in America's classrooms. The video went viral and Allen created the iSchool Initiative as a result of it.

"The power of an idea can lead to so much," noted Allen, who has since presented in over 26 states and three continents. "With technology today, our youth has more power than ever before." 

The day's other speakers included Karl Fisch, the director of technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Co., and the original creator of the "Did You Know?" (Shift Happens) series of videos, in addition to representatives of local school districts and vendors attending the event.

They covered topics such as flipped learning, cloud networking, engaging students with language through technology, iPads in education, the use of Google Plus, blended learning and the Common Core, and the uses of SuccessMaker to support data-driven instruction, among other interesting discussions.

To add your own views on some of that day's topics, go to the specially created collaborative Google Doc at http://tinyurl.com/techexpo13.

TLI - Education Technology Advocate Shares Cool Tools and Gadgets for Teaching

Educators interested in discovering the latest apps that promise to make learning and teaching engaging for students were in for a treat this past January as the self-professed "chief geek" Leslie Fisher provided them with plenty of ways to energize the curriculum.



Leslie Fisher speaks at the January TLI event.

 The talk was one of two sponsored by the LHRIC's Technology Leadership Institute and held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

Ms. Fisher, who serves as director of Fisher Technologies, Inc., provided a myriad of resources for those who might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new technology coming at them on a daily basis.

Some of those include the following:

Evernote – Ms. Fisher described this application as "gadgety but informative." The latest version, known as Evernote Clearly, captures everything, including text, audio, photographs and more, and makes blog posts, articles and web pages clean and easy to read.

Livescribe.com – a paper-based computing platform that consists of a digital pen, digital paper, software applications and developer tools. Central to the Livescribe platform is the smartpen, a ballpoint pen with an embedded computer and digital audio recorder.

Class Dojo – improves student behavior and engagement by awarding and record real-time feedback. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.

Edcanvas – this allows users to create step-by-step guides on any topic. They will also be able to integrate video, audio, stills and links from YouTube. Ms. Fisher suggested that teachers use it as a tool to create quizzes for students.

Smalldemons.com – a web-based literary database, otherwise known as a "storyverse" that visually indexes, annotates and connects the people, places and things that are found in books.

Scoop.it.com – a curation service containing news and social media. Scoop.it allows users to create boards or web pages around a single topic. Users can use a Scoop.it page to aggregate educational videos, online quizzes, spelling resources, and other similar stuff. 

For educators teaching an active news item, Scoop.it's curation tools can be used to create a page that is constantly updated with the latest items on the topic.

Learnist.com – a good site to place nuggets of information or also to grab information from others, said Ms. Fisher.

Weebley.com – a free service that allows users to create websites quickly and easily.

Wufoo.com – a form manager that Ms. Fisher believes is much easier to use than Google Forms.

Fur.ly – users can collect the urls of various websites, enter the addresses into the fur.ly website and wait as the site creates one url for all of them.

Remind101.com – a safe way for teachers to text message students and keep in touch with parents.

Other cool applications that Ms. Fisher talked about include augmented reality for the iPhone and iPad, a video showing Google's powered glasses (not yet on the market) and Aurasma, an augmented platform operated by Hewlett-Packard.

To find out more, visit Ms. Fisher's website at www.lesliefisher.com.