Chapter 2
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Case Studies
Reflections from a Director of Integrated Technology in San Diego, California
Students today participate in a digital learning culture that encompasses their lives 24/7. Yet, currently, this digital learning culture exists predominately outside the school day. In a digital learning culture, literacy is more than text; it includes sound and screen as well. Recognizing that the nature of literacy itself is changing requires the critical understanding that technology enables students and teachers to take learning anywhere, anytime, through mobile technology devices. One of the most powerful innovative instructional experiences I’ve had was leading and managing a one-to-one mobile learning initiative.
There is little doubt that mobile learning devices transform how and when students learn. My own experience in leading such an initiative clearly illustrates the transformative nature of empowering students with individual devices. Equipping students with mobile technology definitely changes the playing field for everyone involved: students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Administrators in a one-to-one learning initiative witness first-hand the change these devices bring to the learning environment through a reinvention of curriculum, teaching, and assessment opportunities. These devices not only support and but demand a learning environment social in nature. The students use the technology to learn, meet, play, and socialize in interconnected ways that afford them real opportunities to make learning replicate real life; they quickly become part of their learning experience and are rarely far from the student’s reach. In essence, mobile technologies engage students in personalized learning and become extensions of their memory, creativity, and imagination – they become tools to “think with” and offer opportunities to interact with the world in authentic ways.
Understanding how today’s children learn, think, work, and live in a digital world is critical if a digital learning culture is to become a part of the fabric of school life. You cannot have a digital learning culture when access is limited to specific times and places. Students with access to technology for only part of the school day cannot truly participate in a digital learning culture. I have found that individual mobile technologies are the key ingredient for promoting and creating a digital learning culture. Individual devices provide the catalyst for transforming a school learning culture from a static didactic experience into an interactive, mutually constructed learning experience. Teachers can no longer ignore the computer labs in the school or the small cluster of desktop units at the back of the room. Every student has a mobile device at his or her desk to use in ways that support individual learning styles and needs.
As part of several digital learning initiatives, I witnessed transformative shifts in student and teacher interactions. Students began suggesting new ways teachers could utilize the technology to be more efficient, more creative, or more informative. Their roles quickly became more collaborative and supportive. This shift and change in the student/teacher relationship is one of the most critical changes necessary to support a digital learning culture. Teachers quickly discovered and embraced the idea that now all learners (students, teachers, and administrators) are nomadic. Now conversations can occur across time and space, extending beyond the traditional block schedule and school day. It is this shift in interaction, in relationship, and in time and space that creates a true digital learning culture.
Students need and want uninterrupted access to rich curriculum, mobile devices, social learning interactions, and immediate feedback in order to learn, achieve, and grow. Innovative instructional leaders leverage technology for educational goals, creating assessment-centered learning environments that provide immediate information on what students are learning. There is no better way to address the needs of diverse learners than through such environments. When students don’t learn, the community suffers. To meet the needs of diverse learners, assessments need to be ongoing and prescriptive so that every student is a valued member of society. Technology, in general, and more specifically mobile technology, contributes to formative, ongoing, and prescriptive assessment through online test-taking, online learning surveys powered by student response systems, online discussion and debate activities, intelligent remediation software, technology-powered writing quality assessment, project-based learning opportunities, digital portfolios, and so much more. To meet the needs of diverse learners we must utilize and develop assessment tools for use throughout the year to monitor individual and group learning.
My experience has shown that when the assessment data and analytical tools are provided to both teachers and students “just in time,” learning grows, achievement improves, and diverse learners are empowered to be responsible for both self-assessment and their own learning.
Source: Karen Connaghan is the senior director of integrated technology services for the entire San Diego County Office of Education in San Diego, California.
Reflections from an Instructional Technology Leader in Georgia
For a number of years the trend has been to place considerable (if not too much weight) on the value of standardized tests in monitoring student achievement. It’s certainly understandable given focus on making AYP [adequate yearly progress]. However, it is certainly not the best assessment “diet” for students or life-long learning.
In Forsyth, we use a balanced assessment program consisting of a combination of standardized tests and classroom assessments. Both types of assessments are used for developing an accurate picture of a student’s overall academic achievement. Standardized tests administered in Forsyth County include a combination of norm-referenced tests, criterion-referenced tests, and ability and achievement tests. Classroom assessments are correlated to the Georgia Performance Standards and provide teachers [with] an ongoing measurement of student progress. Classroom assessments may include, but are not limited to, student portfolios, performance assessments, observations, benchmark tests and writing samples.
One way of considering how to balance the scales of assessment is by considering the question: if you were putting the one-time-a-year standardized test on one side of a scale and classroom assessments on the other, which side should weigh more? This question is valuable in prompting discussion about types of assessment. It may also be helpful to draw models, which represent the various forms of assessment and the weight they hold in the overall Balanced Assessment Diet.
Consider also the move towards the Common Core Standards. These standards and the assessments being developed to go along with them are performance based. To quote my colleague, Dr. Lissa Pijanowski, Forsyth County Schools associate superintendent for academics and accountability: “The classroom implications for this next generation of assessments is that a significant emphasis must be placed on providing students with integrated performance tasks that call on creative problem-solving skills and higher-order thinking. Students will be required to apply their knowledge and demonstrate a deeper understanding of content.”
Source: Jill Hobson is the director of instructional technology for Forsyth County Schools, Georgia. Working with media specialists and instructional technology specialists, Jill focuses on achieving the vision of using classroom technology to engage students in asking questions and choosing tools to facilitate real world problem-solving. Jill was named one of Technology and Learning’s Top 100 most important people in educational technology. She has been on the National School Board Association’s “Twenty to Watch,” a list of 20 emerging leaders in technology.