Michelle R. Davis
Senior writer, Education Week Digital Directions
Follow Michelle on Twitter: @EWmdavis
Making Digital Curricula Meaningful
Expert Presenters:
Spike Cook, principal, R.M. Bacon Elementary School, Millville, N.J.
Calvin Baker, superintendent, Vail school district, Ariz.
Kevin Carney, executive director, Beyond Textbook Program, Vail school district, Ariz.
An on-demand archive of this
webinar will be available at
www.edweek.org/go/webinar
in less than 24 hrs.
Vail Unified School District
� Located in Southern
�
Arizona, East of Tucson,
AZ
11,000+ Students
� 70% White
� 21% Hispanic/Latino
� 5% African American
� 3% Asian/Pacific Islander
� 1% American Indian
� 30% Free/Reduced
Lunch
� Serves a range of 425
square miles
Making Digital Curricula
Meaningful
Digital Curricula
Three Takeaways
Must be attached to a framework
Rediscover the creativity in teaching
Bring us to the next level
Ranked #1 in AZ
2nd Consecutive Year
Excelling Schools
16
Performing
Highly Performing
Excelling
14
Enrollment
Number of Schools
12
9752
10
10664
10201
9128
8313
8
7039
7426
6112
6
5182
4207
4
2
0
2002-03 2003-04 2005-06 2006-07
2007-08
Academic
Year 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
Curriculum
?
Beyond
Textbooks Wiki
(Digital version
of curriculum)
Specific Materials
(What resources we need)
Curriculum Calendars
(When we teach it and for how long)
Unwrapped Documents
(What good enough looks like)
Essential Standards
(What students must learn)
Well-defined curriculum process and
strong instructional model
We don’t use any of these:
“e-texts”
“e-books”
“online textbooks”
“open textbooks”
“digital textbooks”
Beyond Textbooks…
BT Populations
Over 20,000 in All!
Beyond Textbooks
Professional Development
+Relationships
Greater Success
Other Lessons Learned
Study of Change Process
Develop Collaborative Vision
Create and Communicate Clear Goals
Check for Understanding
Monitor Progress
Reinforce Desired Behavior
Set New Goals
Summary
Calvin Baker
Superintendent
vail.k12.az.us
bakerc@vail.k12.az.us
Kevin Carney
BT Executive Director
beyondtextbooks.org
carneyke@vail.k12.az.us
Making Digital Curricula
Meaningful
Spike C. Cook, Ed.D.
About Dr. Spike Cook
– Doctorate in Educational
Leadership
– Teacher, Guidance
Counselor, Coach,
Executive Director at
Rowan University
– Principal at RM Bacon
since April 2011
– www.drspikecook.com
About RM Bacon
• Millville, NJ
• 82% Economically
Disadvantaged
• 335 students K – 5
RM Bacon…Connected
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chosen for the Classroom Instruction
That Works 2nd Edition Video Series
Chosen for EnVision Math Video
Series
45% on Pintrest
50% of staff attends voluntary “Tech
Fridays”
65% of the staff on Twitter
80% on facebook
100% on kidblog.org (Grades 3, 4, 5)
Teachers using Edmodo have
connected with Wisconsin, and
Illinois for reading groups
Voted “Most Connected” School in
Millville Public Schools
Spike Cook and Ceri Dean, lead author of
CITWS 2nd Edition
RM Bacon On Social Media
• www.rmbaconweekly.blogspot.com
• Weekly youtube videos
• https://www.facebook.com/RMBaconElement
ary
• https://twitter.com/BaconElementary
Evaluating Digital Material
• There are thousands of
choices… how do you
make sense of them all?
–
–
–
–
–
Avoid the shiny new toy
Develop a process
Seek out the experts
Take chances
Reflect
Strategies for PD
• Connect PD to teacher
and student learning
• Make it meaningful
• “Tech Friday” concept
• Let students teach PD
• PLC – Everyone has a
place and a voice
First grade student “Panda” taught PD to teachers
Effective Technology Integration
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Approach
Long Term Needs
Invest in Infrastructure
Start Small
Coach, Coach, Coach
Model the Way!
Highlight and tell your
story
Best Practices
• Roll out the red carpet
for those who push the
envelope
–
–
–
–
Acknowledge
Encourage those who try
Pay it forward
Reward
Pitfalls
• It’s hard work
• Not everyone will
embrace
• It’s not about the
devices, its about the
learning
• Digital Divide
RM Bacon Technology Integration
Study 2013
Technology Change
50
45
40
35
30
2010-2011
25
2011-2012
20
2012-2013
15
10
5
0
Teacher Use
Student Use
Web 2.0 Tools
KIDBLOG
POLL EVERYWHERE
GOOGLE+
TWITTER
PODCASTS
PINTEREST
iMOVIES
BLOGS
0
20
40
% of Respondents
60
80
100
Survey Results
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Qualitative Results
• “Dr. Cook has been a
great role model for
technology
integration”
• “The Bacon Weekly
keeps parents more
informed”
• “Prior to working with
Dr. Cook, I did not
understand the value
of social media as a
resource for PD”
• “Through modeling with
his weekly blogs, and
endless enthusiasm to
promote web 2.0 tools I
am more confident in
my ability to prepare
student for a 21st
century global
marketplace”
• “This year I started my
own blog to keep
parents informed!”
• “He has encouraged us
to try anything!”
Kouzes & Posner
Item
1
Item
2
Item
3
Emerging Themes
Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Item
4
Encourage the Heart
Item
5
Enable Others to Act
-
Enthusiasm
Encouragement
Modeling the way
Support
Providing
opportunities for
learning
- Creative Thinking
- Enhancing
communication
- Increased involvement
- Increased Technology
Integration
- Student involvement
Enable
to Act
- Others
Enhanced
Student
Learning
- Staff is more confident
- Leadership
Contact Information
•
•
•
•
•
Twitter – https://twitter.com/DrSpikeCook
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/spike.c.cook
Google + - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111474320222632498774/about
Personal Blog - www.drspikecook.com –
School Blog www.rmbaconweekly.blogspot.com
“Good educational games
should only be played
outside the classroom.”
Justin Leites
47
32
What do good games do well?
(They provide opportunities for great fun but also . . .)
Sustain engagement in solving challenging problems.
“Lots of young people pay lots of money to engage in an activity
that is hard, long, and complex. As an educator, I realized that
this was just the problem our schools face —how do you get
someone to learn something long, hard, and complex, and yet still
enjoy it? I became intrigued by the implications that good video
games might have for learning in and out of schools.”
- James Paul Gee
48
Two very different use cases
Classroom Activity
Outside the Classroom
49
Class time is a scarce resource
Teachers must make the best possible use of every minute
Per subject, less than 150 instructional hours per year.
Lot of material to cover: for instance , 37 topics included
in 7th grade Common Core math standards.
50
Let’s play Minecraft
(for 15 minutes)?
How can education games help?
How children spend time outside of school is key to academic performance
When do poor and minority kids fall behind in
learning to read? Not during the school year, but
over the summer!
By middle school, summer reading losses, plus a
relatively small achievement lag that carried over
from pre-school, produced a cumulative lag of two
years of reading achievement, despite the fact that
lower- and higher-socioeconomic-status children
learned at essentially the same rate while in school.
- American Sociological Review, 2007
52
More time on task!
Vocabulary: many middle
school students are more
than 6,000 words behind.
53
More time on task!
10,000 hours of
deliberate practice
(doing something you love)
54
Outside the Classroom
The sweet spot for good educational games
•
Outside the classroom (lunchtime, school bus,
home, weekends and vacations)
•
Voluntary (because when you force someone
to play, it is no longer play)
•
Games which reward extended play
55
An on-demand archive of this
webinar will be available at
www.edweek.org/go/webinar
in less than 24 hrs.
Making Digital Curricula Meaningful
Required Reading from Education Week:
Special Report: Digital Curricula Evolving
How has online education changed teaching and learning and the development
of curricula? This special report examines how technological trends have
transformed the teacher’s role, pressured schools to modernize, put greater
emphasis on quality content and reimagined K-12 learning environments.
Spotlight on Ed-Tech Strategies for K-12 Leaders
Teachers and students are already driving change, and it’s up to technology
leaders to harness it for improved student learning and assessment. In this
Spotlight, learn how ed-tech leaders are balancing the benefits and drawbacks of
a “flipped” model of instruction, handling school innovation and social media
communications, and ensuring districts are tech-ready for the common core’s
online assessments.