Closing the Digital Learning Gap

Submitted by Nell Eckersley on Thu, 06/26/2014 - 17:17
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Hi all,

Below please see a blog post by Karen Cator on Closing the Digital Learning Gap on the Digital Promise website.  Karen makes the argument that there are many gaps in education equity and that technology could help to close that gap.  What do you think?

Closing the Digital Learning Gap

By Karen Catortwit

Let’s be clear: The problem with education in America is not lack of excellence. It’s lack of equity.

There are pockets of excellence that outshine the best of the best around the world. All across the country, students are designing, coding, composing, animating, and publishing. They are experimenting and solving problems of water and energy, creating local community guides, and connecting across cultural and national borders through virtual exchanges. All across the country, innovative education leaders and classroom teachers are engaging, motivating, and nurturing students to develop mindsets for lifelong learning.

And yet, huge gaps exist between learning outcomes, graduation rates, and college readiness of students based on race, class, and where they live. Gaps also exist between high-performing and under-performing schools based on differences in access to funding and resources, community commitment, and the willingness of school leaders to innovate.

All of this could be about to change. Just as the printing press and free public libraries caused literacy rates in Europe to soar by making books readily available to all, technology represents a similar and no less dramatic chance for Americans to learn.

Still, we face challenges. Not everyone has the vision. Not everyone is comfortable using technology for learning. Not all districts and schools choose to use their resources to purchase technology or offer the professional development and support teachers need to transform their print-based learning environments to print-plus-digital.

In the old model of education, the job of schools was to teach students everything they needed to know for life and work. But in a rapidly changing world powered by technology, we can no longer learn everything there is to know. Instead, students must acquire the knowledge, competencies, and drive that prepare them to continually learn new skills for a future we cannot predict. This can only be achieved by leveraging technology in learning.

At Digital Promise, our commitment to education is to close the digital learning gap by 2020, so all Americans have the opportunity to learn now and throughout their lifetimes.

And one more thing: words can be powerful, but the way to achieve positive change is to take action. At Digital Promise, we take ideas to action in everything we do.

Comments

Nell and others,

I agree with Karen Cator that the lack of equity is the main problem in American education, and have some thoughts about how teachers, using technology, can close the gap. These suggestions, I believe, apply in adult basic education, K-12 and in higher education

  1. We need teachers/tutors/instructors/learning coaches who themselves are not afraid to learn new technologies, (and to accept as normal feeling publicly foolish while they are figuring them out.) Some adult education teachers do that now. I have seen many adult ESOL/ESL teachers, for example particularly those who themselves have had to take risks and feel foolish in learning other languages, do this well.
  2. Teachers need to experience work-related or family needs or demands for which there are technology solution, and then learn the new digital tools for meeting their need.
    1. A few years ago many teachers, including those in adult ed, suddenly found they were required by their bosses to use email in order to do their jobs. Even those who had been dragging their feet got on board, sometimes not happily. Today, however, there are few teachers who don’t regularly use email as part of their work and for communication with friends and family.
    2. More recently, many teachers who are parents or grandparents discovered that, if they wanted to stay in close touch with children and grandchildren, email would no longer work. Their children and grandchildren would only communicate by phone, text messaging, and/or Skype or Google Hangouts. So again, they had to learn some new applications, and they did.
    3. Using social media; shopping online; tracking when shipments will arrive; making travel plans; banking online; learning skills like knitting, home repairs, new recipes – all these require learning how to use new websites and how, as Robert Heinlein wrote in Staranger in a Strange Land, to grock them and make them do what you want, meet the need you have, or help you solve a problem you have identified.
  3. Teachers need to experience meeting these needs and solving these problems enough times, using a wide range of new technologies, that learning a new technology is not intimidating, and that they have well-developed patterns of skills for learning many new technologies.
  4. Teachers then have the right frame of mind, or what some people call “paradigm shift,” to help their students learn to use technologies well. Some people have called this a shift from a “sage on a stage” to a “guide by the side” approach, but I think it has to go further, to be come a “WAITT” model, that is, “We Are All In This Together,” we are all learning from each other – teacher and learners, how to master the new apps, and new hardware. This is a model in which we all expect to experience some frustration, sometimes looking foolish, to regularly learn from someone in the class who has already figured it out. This WAITT model, incidentally, may be useful for learning math, science, and other subject areas. This paradigm shift itself may be how we achieve equity, by helping students become adept, “self-directed” learners, people who are not afraid to delve into new content, learn new skills, try new technologies, learn not only in face-to-face groups but also from free, online instructional videos, and by using other strategies that might be available to them (tutoring, project-based learning, apprenticeship, tweeting or skypeing experts, speech recognition software on their smartphone and other strategies.)
  5. Like the teachers, students need to start with something that they care about. Perhaps they want to apply for a job – and it has to be word processed and submitted online. Perhaps they want to stay in touch with family or friends overseas and need to use Skype, or perhaps – and I recently saw an example of this in New Jersey – they want to convince their employer they know how to do something, and decide that the best way is to make a video of their doing it for their boss to watch. Learning a new technology application: whether word processing; email; sms text messaging; using a search engine to find good information online or check a fact; making a presentation to one’s church, club, or community; usually is accelerated when a learner feels a compelling need, has a passionate interest that must be pursued, or has a challenging and important problem to solve. Learners make quantum leaps in learning content and skills when they are working on something that is important, personally meaningful, and relevant to their lives. This project-based learning (the term comes from John Dewey) exists in American education now, has existed for some time, but too often it is found only in the best schools, in the most well-to-do communities. This is a powerful strategy that may be able to help low-skilled learners accelerate their learning.

I wonder what others think of Karen Cator’s blog post, and of the strategies I have suggested for closing the gap, especially in the context of your own adult learners.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

I consider myself an average technology user. I'm a teacher at a community college and would like to share my experiences from some different viewpoints.

First of all, finding time to consider and play with new technology is a real issue for teachers especially as larger class sizes, new assessments, and stricter curriculum take up more time. Some schools try to solve this problem by doing more faculty service, but this takes time from the classroom in K-12. At the community college, part-time teachers aren't paid to come take these classes, so most don't. I think as has been pointed most teachers use new technology when they need to. The good part about that is that its not technology leading curriculum, but the curriculum coming first. The downside is that many of us are unaware of what Is out there.

Another problem is that technology isn't  always available or is outdated when it  is. I still teach in some classes in a large suburban community college where there is no technology available in the classrooms except a chalkboard. Also some online platforms are just   bad and glitchy, but it takes time to figure out if it's you or if it's them. In fact, we plan to change our materials because the online part is so counter-intuitive and full of glitches. We include a computer lab with our classes which has proven helpful.

I was going to type more but the typing has become slow and non-responsive. 

Thanks Terry,

The first problem you raise, that many community college -- and I believe many other adult basic education and ESOL/ESL -- teachers are part-time and don't get paid for the time it takes to learn new technologies, regrettably is the norm. There's a big disconnect between what education organizations -- and their funders -- say they expect from teachers, and what teachers are paid to do. I wonder what others here suggest to address this problem.

The second problem, outdated technology, is also a challenge in many (but not all) programs. My own state was for many years a leader in integrating technology into adult basic education, and there was funding for purchase of hardware and software, but sadly this is no longer the case, and most adult basic education programs' equipment is now outdated. We need new public and private resources at state and local levels to address this problem, but adult basic education programs in most states haven't seen growth in resources for many years. if anything, resources have diminished.

One thing that has changed, that many adult education teachers are beginning to take advantage of, is that more adult learners now have their own smart phones and tablets, and if those who do can bring them to class, sometimes students can pair (or triple) up to share them, so every student has access. Granted, for many adults smart phone screens are too small to do many things. But some teachers are finding that some learning activities, particularly supplemental English language learning activities on tablets and smart phones (and even plain feature phones) are possible. This takes us back to the first problem you raised, however, how part-time teachers can find time to learn to use smart phones and tablets for students' learning in class and and for supplemental learning outside class. Anyone have thoughts about that?

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

To go along with your comments, recently, I attended a LINCS webinar and I can't remember who shared this statistic, but 60% of adult students have smart phones and are more comfortable using that technology compared to 20% of adult educators. 

This is startling to me. It tells me that, while there are so many barriers to implementation is the lack of time and resources to actually integrate new technologies in instruction. Yet, this staggering disconnect between how our students access and use technology and how we do has a direct impact in our teaching and their learning experience.  

 

 

 

David,

You raise an important point that I think is probably the most important issue facing adult ed teachers. I would think that by now that any program would have as a "lead teacher" someone who has already begun to integrate technology via cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc., creating a supplemental curriculum  From this a list of resources could be made available to all the other teachers to use in their classes. In EFL programs, nearly all students own cell phones and computers already, so it is not too difficult to make the transition.

Cell phones, tablets and laptops by now should be physically made available to all students enrolled in any class, especially EFL. There are organizations that can provide the devices either for free or for a low fee, and there are Grants available to make purchases.

Classes that provide lessons on YouTube, etc., are more interesting to the students, I think, and provide the teacher with more flexibility.

I am currently promoting my version of EFL Distance Learning at various venues, and would be very glad to share my own resources and methodology to anyone interested.

Paul Rogers

 

I provide support at a community college -- a walk-in computer lab in the back of an even bigger walk-in study area, and we're across the hall from our distance and virtual learning office so *if* a student can get to campus, we can help figure out those "me or them?" questions.  We use Desire2Learn which at least when it's gone glitchy, it's been pretty obvious that it was "them" not us.   It would be nice to find a platform that focused more on stability and working instead of being on the bleeding edge!