District Administration - November 2009 - (Page 26)

Conversations John Palfrey need for librarians to play a key role in giving students access to the best information and, more importantly, in giving students the skills to do this themselves. Do the tools of the digital world enable this generation to be more creative? You also describe information overload and multitasking as downsides of the digital world and as impairing learning. Is there a solution to that problem? What is your view of mobile learning technologies—the use of smartphones and other such devices in schools? kids today are more creative than in the past. What we are seeing now are some very interesting ways to be creative, for kids to tell their own story. It’s more YouTube and less Disney. The generally accepted hypothesis is that in the digital environment there are possibilities for student creativity that weren’t there before, but it’s unclear whether this is the case or is just the hope of academics. Frankly, in our research, we found fewer examples of this than we hoped. In many respects there is a pathway [to greater creativity] there, but it is not happening on its own. The role of administrators needs to be pointing out the technological tools for creativity and encouraging their use. What steps can or should schools take to address digital safety issues like cyberbullying or identity theft? JP: It would be a mistake to argue that acute of a problem as others might; I think the amount of information available is more of an opportunity than it is a risk. Multitasking is a slightly different matter. I think that using distracting tools—checking e-mail during class, for example—is a bad idea. It may well be that students today have lesser attention spans. So having JP: I don’t see information overload as The schools that figure out how technology informs pedagogy are going to have the most success. them pay attention and focus on the task at hand is something to work on structurally. I don’t think we should ban certain devices necessarily, but we should decide where these things belong and where they do not belong and structure our schools accordingly. Are digital natives really learning authentically from some of these new technologies? Edugaming, for example? ing”; I think of it just as learning with a device that happens to be a handheld. Yes, their use can change how young people learn, but I wouldn’t just aim for a world of mobile learning. I would ask if there is a way to extend our pedagogy to include these devices that so many young people are using, rather than the other way around and just using them because they exist. There tends to be a “Gee whiz!” factor with so much technology. We might say, “Isn’t Twitter amazing?” but the fact is, not that many young people are using Twitter. So why are we thinking about using it in school? Its use in the classroom is very limited. Do you see a trend for the future with regard to how digital natives will be using technology in schools? JP: I don’t think of it as “mobile learn- need to do is to start a conversation grounded in real practice, to find out what young people are involved with online and get them to talk about it. The same rules about bullying apply to cyberbullying. It’s more complicated in some respects because these environments keep changing. Nevertheless, the process needs to be one where adults are listening to young people, understanding their practices, and helping them to be smarter about how they go about their lives in cyberspace. Most of the time, things are no different in the digital space than they are in the physical space. What’s changed here is the context, not the basic issues. The online practices that young people are engaged in are not as foreign as they may seem initially to educators. 26 November/December 2009 JP: One crucial aspect of what schools and they do. But it’s not necessarily sufficient. Research illustrates lots of interesting ways young people are learning from gaming and social media. I personally don’t think games are the answer to reforming education; there are people that go much further on that continuum than I would. But I think we can learn a lot from the success of game designers, many of whom have created incredibly effective ways to engage young people and to get them learning while having fun. JP: The answer is “They can,” of course, trend of teachers, librarians and administrators quickly getting much smarter about how to use technology and where not to use it. This is happening before our eyes, and I’m very positive about the changes I’ve seen in the last few years, in talking to K12 educators and seeing how adeptly they are responding to the challenges and the opportunities of the 21st century. I think it’s absolutely going in the right direction, but there is still much more work to be done in understanding youth media practices and then figuring out what the implications are both inside and outside the school environment. The adaptation is under way, but we need constant vigilance to what the data are telling us. Researchers are essential to this process, and we also need a mode of translating that research into education policy as we go. —Kurt Eisele-Dyrli JP: That’s a great question. I see an overall District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2009

District Administration - November 2009
Contents
Advertiser Index
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Facilities & Construction
Stimulus Monitor
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Mobile Learning Guide
The New Writing Pedagogy
Staying Ahead in Education
Tightening the Purchasing Process
Minding Your E-mail
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Problem Solution
New Products
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response

District Administration - November 2009