The iPad Revolution: are we skilled enough?

This summer the Middle School is getting a cart of iPads and as you can imagine, we are thrilled. But anyone who has ever been told by an admin to "use more technology in the classroom," knows you can't throw technology into schools without training and support for teachers. What is our plan for developing teachers that are skilled in using them? Honestly, I don't know...yet. And what does skilled mean? What about professional development? And who is in charge of all this? Yikes.

I recently stumbled upon a write up by Sam Gliksman called "Do iPads Have the Capacity to Change Education?" In his piece he mentions a study by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff. She has identified two distinct phases in the way new tech tools are implemented, calling them "Automating and Informating." When Automating, new tools are used to "reinforce existing practices and processes." We see this all the time. Think of the way we use Smartboards - they are often just digital white boards with a teacher at the front of the class as the students take notes.

With Informating, instead of continuing to focus on a learning attribute that already exists in order to make it better (getting kids to be better note takers by sitting still and listening to a lecture) we start to look at brand new skills and outcomes (creating 21st century students who know how to work in collaborative teams). Many feel we are in the infancy of this phase. Perhaps we are. In any case, before the iPads arrive this summer, we intend to explore ways to make the essential plan for our faculty to do a lot less automating, and much more informating with our iPads.

Want to read Sam's writing on iPads and more?
http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=371wq83chgfc5

The final push toward summer

I can't believe it, but - gulp - we only have a few more weeks left before summer. As all of you know, this school year has been a long one. This Syracuse winter left us dazed and confused with the difficult weather as well as the loss of our long standing Head of School. Many parents and students were stunned this winter and continue to feel the effects. Our faculty, though strong and talented, were the hardest hit. But they continue working, cherishing instructional time with students as well as daily conversations and laughs with each other. Nevertheless, I get the sense that we are all ready for summer break.

So I began to think about summer break. Where did it come from? I always had some idea about it's origins, but I wasn't really sure. So I looked it up. This is what I found:

In the 1840s, educational reformers such as Horace Mann moved for a summer recess, out of concern that rural schooling was "insufficient and overstimulating" our youth. They actually felt it could lead to "nervous disorders," believe it or not. Summer seemed like the obvious time for a break as it offered a "respite for teachers, meshed with the agrarian calendar and alleviated physicians' concerns that packing students into sweltering classrooms would promote the spread of disease." So there you have it, summer break. And though I for one love the fast paced, always changing, social animal that is the school environment, this year summer will be that welcome respite all of us need sometimes.

For more on summer: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1816501,00.html#ixzz1MSkwpmZI