"Visions of Students Today" - Whose Education is it anyway?

If a picture is worth a thousand words ...how much is a video worth? These ones are priceless – for educators of post-compulsory students. To call the two videos featured in this post “thought provoking” is an understatement.
Both videos are created by Michael Wesch – with a lot of help from students at Kansas State University. The first, “A vision of students today”,is widely known and has been circulating around the internet since October of 2007 while the sequel, “Visions of Students Today”, was released in June, 2011. Both give a sense of what it is like to be a university level student today. I won’t elaborate specifically on the content of the videos – except to suggest that they should be compulsory viewing for all teachers, lecturers and professors.
Expressing concern about the “irrelevance” of education is nothing new. It was already an established theme back when I was a student – not long after the ark found dry land. However, even if we put aside the issue of the appropriateness or otherwise of the curriculum itself and just contemplate the educational experience itself, educators should be asking some serious questions. We know what modern life is like for our students. Why have our schools and universities not kept up? Why do we not use the technology and the equally important associated attitudes available to us? To some extent there will always be a lag period between technological innovation and educational practice – technology evolves faster than institutions do. But, as these videos show, when we use new approaches, or rather when we allow our students to use the technology that is already available to them, significant learning can occur.
So we have the situation where often the curriculum itself can be of little relevance or significance and the process by which students interact with their “education” is disconnected from their daily life with its heavy emphasis on modern technology. Is this really good enough? It begs the question – whose education is it anyway, the student’s or “the system’s”?

Anyone interested in more background in the creation of “Visions of Students Today” can follow this link to the associated blog pages.
Associated background story http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=303
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/

Visions of Students today link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXpitAlva0

A vision of students today link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Michae Wesch photo:
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/mike.jpg

Mathematical Maverick – Dan Meyer – “Be less helpful”

If mathematics has a poster boy it is – or at least should be – Dan Meyer. Meyer is something of a rarity in the field of public discussion of mathematics; he is not an academic, he is not an educational administrator, he is a teacher - someone who works in real classrooms with real students with real mathematics. It is this “real world” context that makes him worth listening to – and which provides the grounding for his instruction.
Meyer is an advocate of authentic learning in mathematics. If you think of “drill and practice” worksheets or textbooks, or even the Khan Academy online learning site, then Meyer is at the opposite end of the spectrum. However, Myer is not “warm and fuzzy” or laissez faire when teaching mathematics – he expects his students to learn and master the material; it is just that he considers it far more important that students understand the concepts involved before reducing mathematics to pencil and paper exercises devoid of any connection to the real world experiences of students.
In his recent TEDxNYED talk Meyer claims that the traditional text book approach to teaching mathematics destroys mathematical reasoning and patient problem solving, replacing it with an attitude that mathematics is all about plugging in some given information into a formula, which incidentally is also given by the text book, and churning out an answer with little or no meaning. It need not be so and in his talk Meyer demonstrates how to use effectively teach the same material.
He gives some general advice as well. One piece of wisdom he shares is to “Ask the shortest question you can”. Another is “Be less helpful”. These adages may appear to be counter to conventional wisdom – and perhaps they are. They make more sense in the context of his talk – which can be viewed here.
If you teach mathematics – or know anyone currently being taught mathematics, this is a “must see” video.

Meyer also maintains an informative mathematics based blog that can be accessed here.

Mathematician's Lament - Paul Lockhart

Following on consistently in my habit of being the last kid on the block to discover something I recently fell upon “Mathematician’s Lament” by Paul Lockhart.

The history of the book is interesting in itself – it actually started life as a 25 page type written document that was presented to math guru Keith Devlin at a conference. Devlin was intrigued and impressed by the brief piece – so much so that he tracked down the author and sought permission to feature the article in his regular math opinion piece at Mathematical Association of America online site (a great site which will reward frequent visiting or follow this link  to Devlin’s column with a link to the PDF of the original piece). Publication in that forum lead to the publication of the book form – complete with some intriguing examples of what Lockhart considers “real maths”. There are some stylistic features of note – not the least of which is Lockhart’s homage to Galileo’s 1632 tome “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” which features two characters involved in discussion. At seemingly random times around the book Lockhart uses the same conversational format and even two of the character names, Simplcio and Salviati, to advance his arguments. This actually simplifies the discussion - no prose or description, just the two characters “talking” about issues related to current mathematics instruction.

However, the section I would like to share is where Lockhart describes math education via a dreaming musician early in the book.

“A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more comptetitive in an increasing sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made – all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or composer.

Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious black dots and lines must constitute the “language of music.” It is imperative that students become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until college, and more often graduate school.

As for the primary and secondary schools, their mission is to train students to use this language - to jiggle symbols around according to a fixed set of rules....

… In their wisdom, educators soon realize that even very young children can be given this kind of musical instruction. In fact it is considered quite shameful if one’s third-grader hasn’t completely memorized his circle of fifths. …

In the higher grades the pressure is really on. After all, the students must be prepared for the standardized tests and college admissions exams. Students must take courses in scales and modes, meter, harmony, and counterpoint. “It’s a lot for them to learn, but later in college when they finally get to hear this stuff, they’ll really appreciate all the work they did in high school.” Of course, not many students actually concentrate in music, so only a few will ever get to hear the sounds that the black dots represent. “

And so it goes ...

Now, I have to say that I have now read the book twice – and I don’t agree with everything that Lockhart says. I’m still debating whether I think Lockhart got some things wrong – as well as an awful lot right – or if I’m simply not brave enough to agree with him; for to agree with Lockhart means that maths instruction MUST not only change but change dramatically.

For me a key aspect of the musician’s dream is the notion of providing “skills” now that a student will need later - even if they have little or no relevance to the students now. Lets think about this - we are actually saying to our students - we know this is irrelevant to you now - but we are going to teach it to you anyway. How did this become accepted practice? What learning theory does this reflect? Why do the conventions of the educational system outweigh the needs of our students?

“Mathematician’s Lament” is not a flawless work - but it does provoke some important questions; it is well worth reading and thinking about - and I’d suggest not just for math’s teachers but any teacher who considers themselves a “subject teacher” rather than a teacher of students.

Addendum:  The link provided above was not active as of 8/12/2011.   The document can still be accessed however by following this link.   

Do we blame dentists for tooth decay?

I’ve been reading a lot of assignments of late to do with literacy generally and the “literacy wars” in particular. Perhaps predictably the students fall comfortably into the “phonics” or “whole language” camps – few have made the accurate observation that both approaches co-exist in the classrooms of effective teachers. Some have stretched a little further to include the impact of certain teaching philosophies on student achievement while others have made similar observations about the impact of the “home environment” on reading achievement. While reading it struck me as a curious that, almost alone one out of all the professions, teachers are held accountable in ways that other professions are not.

I’d like to pose a question – do we blame dentists for tooth decay? After all, dental hygiene is their job isn’t it? Isn’t their job to ensure that our kids have their teeth in good shape? Or do we say that dentists may be the experts and have a major role to play - but that each individual has to consider their dietary choices and do some basic things like clean their teeth on a regular basis? If I choose to drink carbonated sugar water with colouring, lollies with enough sugar to make a diabetic spin-out and then choose not to clean my teeth then I have to take the consequences of that – don’t I? I suspect that most would agree with the latter view. Is it my dentist’s fault if I get decay?

We would also have reasonable expectations that dentists would use the latest techniques as established by research and technological advances – even if they were at odds with the techniques used in our parent’s day. So, higher speed drills and good quality pain medication is something most would vote for. Would we really want the dentist to use slow spin drills just because that was what we were used to in our childhood? Would we even go to a dentist who refused to use modern equipment and techniques, or that used the same knowledge base that existed say two generations ago? (We could also extend the metaphor and ask if we would prefer modern magazines in the waiting room or a range of recent publications – torn and tatty copies of the Readers Digest may not suit us all. )

Rhetorical questions only as I think I can predict the answers.

Relating this to literacy - what is the equivalent of a “good diet”? What is the equivalent of “cleaning our teeth”? What new methods are now possible thanks to advances in technology?

This is in no way intended to shift responsibility for literacy “failure” to parents – but it is to remind us that sometimes what goes on outside of school has a significant bearing on what schools can actually achieve. This metaphor also helps hold a mirror up to our expectations of literacy and schools in general - they seem at stark odds to our expectations for most other aspects of modern life.

Photo credit: http://www.dentalsurgeons.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dental_chair.jpg

Learning locally

I’m a fan of online learning and learning via the Internet. The treasury of knowledge that resides in “the cloud” magically captured and reproduced via a series of “1” and “0” is simply staggering. Despite a lifetime of reverence to the printed page I have become an enthusiastic user of electronic learning. If you know what you are looking for and know how to ask the right questions you can discover basically any thing you want on the Internet in less time than it takes for your coffee to cool.

I am an neophyte member of any number of electronic communities - some incredibly useful and which provide me with all sorts of useful information and educational techniques. I have a secret passion for mathematics education - and am able to access rich information from all around the planet. Such is my involvement in the online community that I considered letting my membership of my state mathematical association lapse - after all, I can access more information more easily on the web; why should I continue with an organisational structure with procedures older than me?

I decided to attend the annual conference and then retreat to my laptop for ideas when I need them. I made the trip to the state capital and was staying with relatives. I noticed that my relatives had the same brand of TV that I do - but that it was tuned differently. It did not have an annoying “beep” every time I pressed a button, nor did it show a host of “empty” channels. It took perhaps a minute for my relative to show me how to retune my TV to remove these features.

My point is that this learning, as simple as it was, is unlikely to have taken place online. I have been frustrated with the “beep” and empty channels for months - but I had been unable to find a solution (I had tried to find one via the manual with no success). Sometimes we can learn things of personal significance in the most unanticipated places...from people.

I was reminded of the infamous press conference by Donald Runsfeld in which he spoke about “unknown unknowns”. As tortured as his terminology was he made a sound point - sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. The Internet is brilliant for discovering what you want to find out - or, as Runsfeld would put it, “known unknowns”. However, for that incidental knowledge, for those happy productive coincidences, it seems that we need to remember the “social” in “social constructivist” learning.

It’s been said better before by environmental group Greenpeace - “Think global - act local.”

(And yes, the conference had some gems too - I’ll be continuing my membership.)

Students leaving a legacy - Alan November

We live in an era of bells and whistles and razzmatazz, the 30 second sound bite, flash animations and “edutainment”. For a message to “hit home” it has to be delivered with all the “bells and whistles” that are possible. Right? Wrong.

Educational consultant Alan November proves that powerful thoughts, spoken softly in the most traditional manner of all - a teacher in front of some students with only some slides (still images) to help him, can be riveting.

November crams a lot into this relatively brief TEDxNYED talk. One central theme though is that our students deserve the opportunity to leave a legacy through involvement in real world issues - that they consider important. The teacher doesn’t own the learning - it belongs to the students.

I’m hesitant to repeat November’s words here as they are told with a gentle humility which ironically makes them more powerful. In essence though, November values his students and values the contribution that they can make to our society - not just at some hazily defined time when they grow up and finish school, but here and now while they are at school. Their school “work” itself can and should be significant in the here and now. He stresses the significance of allowing students to have the opportunity to make a difference - to “leave a legacy”.

The word inspirational has been devalued in recent times which is a real pity as this is one talk that deserves the accolade. It isn’t just challenging, or thought provoking - it really is inspirational, even without “bells and whistles”.

(Access his presentation here or at   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJHzpEy4bE




Alan Novembers web page =   http://novemberlearning.com/

The interruptions ARE the job.

Today was frustrating - until I had a visit from a ghost.

It was one of those days - I was organised and had my “to-do-list” ready. I was focused. I was energetic. I was efficient.

I was also popular.

From the moment I arrived at my desk and turned on the computer there was an endless stream of knocks at the door. Students wanting to discuss assignments, students wanting clarification, students wanting to discuss some items for their professional portfolio - even one student not sure what question she wanted to ask but sure that she needed to talk to me to clarify what her question should be. My trip to the cafeteria for a much needed coffee turned into a student ambush and a discussion with a group of half a dozen more students after assignment advice. Then there were colleagues with questions about previous units or asking for some ICT advice.

All the time I was busy and productive - but my to-do-list had not been touched. My frustration levels were rising. My self imposed deadline was looming. And then I had a message from a ghost.

I remembered a conversation, one sentence really, that I had with the principal at my first appointment decades ago. He had obviously had a busy day - frantic in fact. It was towards the end of his professional life and he was beginning to show the signs of a demanding career. He slumped into the arms of a poorly padded chair in the staff room with a world weary sigh just as the phone went. Again. He was needed in the office. I asked him as he pushed his way up from his seat “Do you ever get sick and tired of all the interruptions?” He gave me a weary smile and answered “Nev - the interruptions ARE the job.”

How true that is.

We do not do paperwork and administration for the sake of administration. Our fundamental purpose is to educate - to assist students to learn. Everything else is secondary - important perhaps, but secondary.

So I leave the office today with my “to-do-list” untouched - but I did my job well.


Dedication: To Dallas Shadbolt - “The interruptions are the job.”


Illustration credit = http://www.whataracquet.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/to-do-list.jpg