Working with these students today

At a conference yesterday, a colleague approached me and asked me about working with “these students today.”  Since being on a sabbatical and overseeing an outreach program at his institution, he’s been away from teaching for a few years.  This semester, however, he’s back in the classroom and he’s troubled by the students’ work ethic, their level of engagement and their ability to critically think.  He wondered how I’m able to work “with these students today!”

There is no doubt that students in our classrooms have more access to technology and information then ever before.  Some have written that this unprecedented access to technology has changed the students.  For instance, Marc Prensky has written extensively about Digital Natives and claims that the brains of our students have changed by being constantly connected.  While Prensky’s work has been debated and scrutinized, it’s also been fodder for those educators who see technology as the downfall of humanity, for learning, and just about every other societal aspect we value.

I try not to get too caught up with debating whether the students have changed or not.  My role as a educator is to teach the students I have.  I don’t spend too much time worrying about the types of students I had five years ago or the ideal students with whom I’d like to work.  The students I have are the ones I am going to teach.  I need to do everything in my power pedagogically to help them learn and help them meet my expectations.  If I’ve been a successful educator with “these students today” (and you’d have to talk to my students to know for sure), it’s because I believe in a few foundational tenets that guide most of work.  I shared these principles with my colleague and explained that these aren’t really new concepts at all.  They’re rooted in concepts shared by John Dewey almost seventy five years ago.

1.  Meet the students where they are.  I’ve written about this in other posts, but I think it’s relevant here.  Being successful educators requires that we understand our students and use this understanding to guide our instruction.  We shouldn’t lower our expectations but we do need to develop lessons with our students in mind.  Understanding students and their needs is important, Dewey writes in Experience and Education, because

“without this insight there is only an accidental chance that the material of study and the methods used in instruction will so come home to an individual that his development of mind and character is actually directed.“

2.  Make the content relevant and meaningful.  I know this may be difficult with some content areas, but I think it’s important for educators to help students make connections between what they’re learning and their lives.  We need to ask ourselves “How will what they’re learning inform other areas of their lives?  Why is it important?”  As educators, we often focus on the “future” at the expense of the now.  By making the content more meaningful in their present lives, students can be more motivated to learn.  As Dewey writes:

“It means that a person, young or old, gets out of his present experience all that there is in it for him at the time in which he has it. When preparation is made the controlling end, then the potentialities of the present are sacrificed to a suppositious future. When this happens, the actual preparation for the future is missed or distorted. The ideal of using the present simply to get ready for the future contradicts itself. It omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared for his future. We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. This is the only preparation which in the long run amounts to anything.”

3.  Let the students take ownership.  Last week, our campus held its Spring Convocation.  At the event, our associate provost shared a video compilation of some interviews he conducted with students.  One theme present in all of the student interviews was the students’ desire to take ownership of their work.  Students want to play an active role in developing the classroom structure and want to make choices in the way they can present their work or be assessed.  This sounds like a pretty radical idea but it’s also rooted in Deweyian philosophy.  Returning to Experience and Education, Dewey writes:

“The way is, first, for the teacher to be intelligently aware of the capacities, needs, and past experiences of those under instruction, and, secondly, to allow the suggestion made to develop into a plan and project by means of the further suggestions contributed and organized into a whole by the members of the group. The plan, in other words, is a co-operative enterprise, not a dictation.  The teacher’s suggestion is not a mold for a cast-iron result but is a starting point to be developed into a plan through contributions from the experience of all engaged in the learning process. The development occurs through reciprocal give-and-take, the teacher taking but not being afraid also to give. The essential point is that the purpose grow and take shape through the process of social intelligence.”

Experience in Education was published in 1938 but Dewey’s words still resonate with us in the 21st Century.  As we struggle with “working with these students today,” I wonder whether we’re just wrestling with concepts that educators have faced for decades, concepts like freedom, democracy and liberty.   It’s easy to target a cell phone, Facebook or an iPad as the negative catalyst for our students.  I think the real challenges are much bigger.

Google Play heralds the tablet era on campus

A few weeks ago, Google announced a new addition to its technology suite:  Google Play.  Built as a competitor to iTunes and Amazon, Google Play is a veritable megaplex of content for the online shopper.  Books, music, movies and apps are all available for purchase and download.  Like Apple and Amazon does with their tablet owners, Google Play is providing a one-stop shopping experience for users who own Android devices.

While Google Play was designed to capitalize on the growing tablet market, this venture should also be seen as an important sign for educators: We are about to see a tablet explosion on campuses!  As tablet options grow and content becomes more available online, it is only natural that collegiate students will begin seeing the devices as viable devices for their use on campus.  Look at laptop ownership.  The ECAR National Survey of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology  reports that 87% of collegiate students own laptops.  Laptops, however, are not ideal devices for collegiate students.  While laptops support content authoring, they are not natural reading devices, at least not as compared to books.  Or tablets.  Considering their functionality and their cost, I believe we are only a few semesters from seeing an explosion of tablet ownership in our classrooms.  And this isn’t just my opinion, either. The Person Foundation recently published a comprehensive report on tablet ownership and student access to digital media.  Some highlights from the study:

• Tablet ownership has more than tripled among college students since March 2011, with one-quarter now owning a standard tablet (25%), compared to only 7% in March 2011.
• More than six in ten college students agree that tablets help students to study more efficiently (66%) and help students to perform better in classes (64%).
• 63% of college students believe that tablets will effectively replace textbooks as we know them today within the next five years.
• 58% of college students prefer a digital format when reading textbooks for class.

Whether it’s with a Kindle Fire, an iPad, or with an Android tablet, collegiate students are becoming more comfortable with using tablet computers and seeing their use as vital to their academic success.  Google Play’s emergence heralds the coming tablet era on collegiate campuses.  The big question though, is: “Are we as educators ready?”

BYOD Concerns: Education vs. Prohibition

One innovation that is sweeping American institutions of learning is the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement.  The reasons are compelling.  Instead of schools and universities purchasing expensive technology and paying for its upkeep, individual students simply use the devices that they already have.  A recent ECAR survey reports that over half of collegiate students now own smartphones and over 85% own laptop computers.  Simply allowing students to use the devices they already own reduces the financial burden to schools.  It also allows students to use those devices with which they are already comfortable.  Many students customize the look and feel of their computers and phones to suit the needs.  Schools that embrace BYOD recognize the importance of individualized technological experiences for students.  BYOD schools also recognize the power that these technologies can have on learning.  Educators can use affordable student response systems like iClicker or PollEverywhere to engage and assess their students.  Additionally, through increased academic use, students will better understand how to use devices they already own as tools for learning.

When schools embrace BYOD, however, new challenges emerge.  For instance, a recent study by Junco & Cotten shows that multitasking during schoolwork can a strong negative impact on a collegiate student’s GPA.  While activities like Google searching during schoolwork do not significantly impact a student’s GPA, the study shows that using Facebook and Twitter does.  This study provides empirical evidence for what many educators already know:  Students can’t be updating their Facebook statuses or Tweeting when they’re trying to study and be successful students.  The study also reinforces work by Wood and her colleagues that showed the negative impact that off-task multi-tasking during classroom lessons could have on student performance.

These studies provide some interesting obstacles for those of us advocating for the BYOD movement.  With students using their own devices, isn’t there a greater likelihood that they’ll be tempted to check their Facebook page or their Twitter feed during classtime?  Don’t these research studies show the BYOD is doomed and we should just ban students’ distracting technologies from our classrooms?  While some may argue that the studies would support a prohibition of technology from our classroom, I tend to read the research more broadly.  The studies absolutely show that technologies can have negative impact on student performance. But examined collectively, the studies also show that students will be distracted from their schoolwork whether they’re in our classrooms or not.  We can’t ban technologies from their lives completely.  It’s really an age old challenge that parents, educators, and politicians (and others) find themselves facing time and time again:  Education vs. Prohibition.  Do we ban soft drinks and sweets completely or do we teach children to balance their diets?  Do we ban certain types of literature or do we teach readers the value of great literature?  Do we ban sites like Wikipedia completely or do we teach students how to critically analyze information and vet sources? Do we ban distracting technologies or teach students how to better manage their technical lives so they’re less distracted?

I believe we need to educate students about appropriate use of technology and show students that they will be more productive and more engaged when they focus on a single task without the distractions from Facebook and Twitter.  This is a 21st Century life skill that will help them be better students, but it will also help them be more attentive friends, partners and parents.

Lessons from 12 Tech Innovators

Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education named 12 Tech Innovators who are changing the ways that colleges and universities operate.  These individuals are breaking traditional paradigms and examining how best to support student learning in an era of increased access to technology.  Looking at each of the named Tech Innovators individually, their efforts may at first seem disjointed, as if innovation is pulling education in a hundred different directions at the same time.  For instance, Salman Khan was named a Tech Innovator for his work with Khan Academy and for promoting the concept of the “flipped classroom.”  Francois Grey, from the Tsinghua University, was identified a Tech Innovator for enlisting “citizen scientists” to collect and analyze data by tapping into the collective power of their home computers.  Robert Mendenhall, president of Western Governors University, was named for his work developing a competency-based institution which is cost-effective for students.

At first glance, the efforts of the Tech Innovators may seem completely disparate. When examined holistically, however, several themes begin to emerge that can communicate powerful messages for those of us who are working to transform how students interact and learn.

1.  The power of community and collaboration should not be underestimated.  From Francois Grey’s distributed computing to Candace Thile’s team-built online courses through the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, it is clear that for educational innovations to be successful in the 21st Century collaboration needs to occur.  Information is growing at too fast a pace and the challenges facing education are too multifaceted for individuals to tackle alone.  We need to foster collaborative efforts across departments and across institutions to better position ourselves to evolve to meet the changing demands of education.

2.  Access to information is breaking new ground.  Over 98% of South African university students own cell phones.  Rather than viewing the devices as distractions, Laura Czerniewicz saw them as educational opportunities for students who did not traditionally have access to textbooks or laptops.  John P. Wilkin, the executive director of HathiTrust, has worked with 60 partner institutions to built an online digital library with more than 10 million volumes.  Salman Khan has added thousands of educational videos online for people to access for free.  What do these seemingly diverging stories have in common?  They are providing access to information.  As these avenues to access information break new ground, they have the power to provide exciting new learning opportunities for our students.

3.  It’s all about learning.  Looking across the project developed by the identified Tech Innovators, it is clear that any innovation needs to focus on supporting student learning.  While it may be great to utilize some new technology or purchase some new device, if it doesn’t foster student learning than it is a waste of resources.  Take Jim Groom, a professor at the University of Mary Washington.  He avoided using traditional content management system because the features tended to “squash creativity.”  Wanting to develop a more collaborative environment for his students, Groom fashioned together a slew of free, web-based tools to foster a “family” of students enrolled at five different institutions.  Through the tools, students were able to communicate with one another and create digital stories together.  Groom’s focus wasn’t on the tools but on the learning interactions that the tools could support.  This message resonates in the profiles of the other Tech Innovators.