Gamers as a model for real learning?

What do you think of when you think of a gamer?

A slacker?

A basement dweller who can't relate to the real world?

How about . . .

A person with a questioning disposition?

A person with curiosity?

A person, who as part of a community, transforms and shapes their own learning?

A model for what real learning looks like?

Look at this video in which John Seely Brown talks about motivating learners. He paints an interesting and provocative picture of today's learners. It is a picture that those of us in education need to embrace but clearly have not.

Data, sports, and schools: What's the connection?

An article appeared on how statistics and data can be used to improve outcomes. The author said:

• analytics are advancing and changing everything
• access to previously unimaginable information and statistics
• various software programs can break down in breath taking detail . . .

Yet the author continued and said:

• Many people are still fighting back against the numbers
• The numbers are the the numbers. But you better know your [people]
• Even at a conference about using the numbers and analytics in new ways, there is significant backlash against using the numbers in the current ways.

The author concludes with:

• You can understand those under the microscope being dismissive of those people calculating odds and percentages and best practices while sitting far away from the fray

And there you have it.

On the one hand you have those who advocate for the use of data. Numbers. Statistics. Quantifiable outcomes.

Then you have those in the trenches, those on the field, those doing the work that have a different perspective than those in the offices calculating performance who have never been in the trenches, on the field, or doing the work.

That is the world of education. 

Except this article was about the use of data in sports not the use of data in schools. 

It was interesting to see the similarities between those in sports and those in schools.

Both have data.

There is some skepticism in some quarters about the importance of data.

A big difference is that in sports one can define success. A team wins or loses. Inquiring minds can ask why "Team A" did better than "Team B"? Those who advocate using data in new ways will argue that it is using the data in new ways that is making the difference for those teams that win.

Think "Moneyball."

But in education is the use of data that clear cut?

Do we see winners and losers just based on data?

Some data points seem more important to some people than other data points.

Test scores? Important.

Poverty rates? Not so important to some.

Grade points? Viewed with skepticism by some.

The outcome in education is learning. We need to use all of the available data that we have to try and figure out if students are learning.

But we also need to look at the human factor. How do we quantify the importance of a teacher who cares? Of a teacher who connects with students?

The conversation surrounding the use of data is critical.

When data conflicts with a political agenda, who wins?

On January 16, 2013, Governor Snyder, in his state of the state address, said the following:

Only 17 percent of our kids are college ready.

This is a consistent message that the Governor gives. He hammers again and again that only 17% of Michigan's high school seniors are college ready. He has said it many times.

But it is just not true.

No matter how many times he says it, the Governor is wrong.

On the Governor's dashboard - MI School Data (www.mischooldata.org) - 75% of the 2010 graduates - the latest year for which numbers are available - enrolled in college within 16 months of graduation. (Here's a link that shows the numbers - click on the "percentage" link.)

On the Governor's dashboard - MI School Data - the latest figures show that less than 30% need remedial courses in college in any subject. Indeed, the numbers show that less than 8% need remedial courses in reading, less than 13% need remedial courses in writing, and less than 22% need remedial courses in math.

If Governor Snyder's numbers were accurate then fully 83% of students would need remedial work.

Why would the Governor try to sell an idea that clearly is not true?

He has a political agenda that requires him to try and show that public schools are not doing the job. This would allow him to sell his idea that other forms of education - commercialized, for-profit companies and his Educational Achievement Authority - are needed to provide the kind of education that Michigan students need.

But the data refute the Governor. It appears that the Governor is not looking at the data or is choosing to ignore the data.

What happens when data conflicts with a political agenda? It appears that the political agenda wins.

The Governor could be selling that Michigan's public schools do a great job of educating students. The Governor could be trumpeting than businesses should invest in Michigan because we have an educated population that would help businesses succeed.

But the Governor is not doing that.

That is - to put it mildly - unfortunate.

Reflection on teaching and teachers

How hard is teaching?

Lee Shulman described teaching this way:

"Classroom teaching is the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity that our species has ever invented. The only time a physician could possible encounter a situation of such complexity would be in the emergency room after a natural disaster."

We live in a time when teachers are put under a microscope.

Students aren't learning the critics say.

Teachers are overpaid the critics say.

Teaching isn't all that hard the critics say.

The critics have never been in a classroom looking into the faces of twenty-five young people who are looking back into your eyes.

Those young people are at times eager, surly, curious, engaged, bored, disappointed, frustrated, sleepy, excited, distracted, anxious, happy, focused.

And the expectation is that the teacher can keep all of them pointed in the same direction.

I understand that at times teachers do not live up to the expectations that we have of them. We have all been disappointed by a teacher.

But let's agree that teaching is difficult and teachers, the vast majority of the time, do wonderful things.

Teaching is not for the faint-hearted. Let us continue to support the great work they do to help our students every day.

Start the day in the ball pit

What happens when two strangers sit together in a ball pit?

It reminds us that if we are willing to talk and listen we will remember what's important in life.

What does community mean today?

There was a fascinating report on NPR today on the future of news.

It appears that anyone, with the help of various smartphone and web-based apps, can create personalized news and information experiences. The CEO of Thirst Anuj Verma said, "People shouldn't be reading the same thing even if they go to the same platform. Having a personalized experience with what you are reading, is, I think, the future of consumption."

While I applaud this move toward helping me find information that I personally find interesting and enjoyable, I wonder how this will affect building community through a common set of knowledge and experiences.

If we become a nation where there is no common experience will it erode our ability to speak and listen to one another? 

Perspective on assessment

What if one moment defined who you were?

I stuck my tongue to the metal ice tray when I was six. 

I tried to throw a golf ball over my house when I was nine and threw it right through the front window instead. 

I drove down a dirt road in Iowa right after a rainstorm even though my girlfriend, who is now my wife, said, “I don’t think you should do that.” I am glad that farmer came along to help pull us out. 

I tried to fix our kitchen faucet on New Year’s Eve and we were without running water for two full days.

Then there was the time that I was trying to put up paneling in the bathroom. It evidently never occurred to me that I might need to be careful. Shortly after I started my project I was running to find the water shut off because I had put a nail right through one of the water pipes.

If anyone used those moments to define me, I would probably not be sitting where I am right now. Taking one moment to define anyone is not very wise. I have had many moments in my life that I wish I could do over. I am certainly glad that my life was not defined by those moments.

MEAP test scores were released by the state yesterday. I hope that the students in my district don't think that those scores define who they are and who they can become. Regardless of the score, the results give us perspective, they do not give us definition, of these young people. 

All of us have taken a test and received a score that we hope does not define us. In our district I hope that we take the long view. I want our teachers to know and understand the curriculum. Then I want our teachers to use the best instructional strategies they know to teach our students. We assess our students to identify strengths and weaknesses and then we create a plan to address the weaknesses and strengthen the strengths.

Our test scores give us a snapshot of where our students are at one point in time. Our teachers and administrators have the responsibility to take those scores, interpret them, and then to create a plan that will help every student make progress every year. The goal is to ensure that every student is prepared upon graduation to be successful. 

One test score does not define who we are. It is a tool that we can use to help us get better.