The real question is not how to innovate using technology; there are plenty of ideas for that. And it’s not that we don’t have plenty of cool and different technologies to do the job either. It’s still about how to get the tech into the classroom with students and teachers. There has always been a funding issue, but it’s so much more an intense struggle today.

Here’s what a few prominent education leaders are saying:

Superintendent Valeria Silva has 40,000 students on her watch and she is an advocate for each. Silva knows there’s power in technology, but she also understands the influence a teacher has on a child as well.

“I don’t believe that removing teachers from the school environment by adding technology will close the achievement gap. I can assure you that’s for those students who are self-directed learners. When you’re talking about students — with a deficit in content — such as reading and comprehension — for those students — the pieces during their lives, in which they haven’t been successful — are many. So their self-esteem — ability to see themselves as future learners is not there. They need that interaction with the teacher to say you can — let’s do it differently,” says Valeria Silva, superintendent, Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota.

“A way to close the achievement gap is the equity piece. Most students of color and those in poverty don’t have access to information. They don’t see their parents doing and watching — with access — either — they don’t have the latest technology. So, when we’re talking about public education in America that’s going to educate all students, it is necessary for schools to provide technology.

In every area technology is an issue — K12, university, and work. This is a time we should put children first — to prepare them. Parents need to be aware of the power of technology, and teachers need to be aware of the power of transformation. Administrators have to be better prepared and better communicators of how technology will empower this next generation,” says Silva.
As she so aptly puts it, “Superintendents take every punch!”

Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s vice president, Worldwide Public Sector Education, is a global, common sense, education voice for change — and it’s not all about the technology. He knows how to get to the point, even in a room with many conflicting story lines.

“The real piece that we all should be struggling with and troubled by is the gap between students’ potential and what they are achieving. The great goal for every school leader, every teacher, and every parent is to have a student lift their expectation of their future when they walk into a classroom or school. Too often students who are pressed because of race or gender, or economic conditions — think less of what their potential could be. We need to make a shift, especially with kids who need it most — and that’s what education can do — that’s what technology can enable — by having a broader landscape of what that possibility is. We need to lift expectations everyday for kids,” says Anthony Salcito.

According to John C. Caver, superintendent of cchools, Howard-Winneshiek Community School District, NE Iowa, “Over 100 school Districts in Iowa have provided thousands of their students with laptops, or some form of digital learning device. It is a game changer. It has been my experience that the easy part of the equation is to make the decision to provide computer technology. The realization is that when you step through the looking glass — from your new perspective, one can clearly see the flaws in the system — and the need for change. As the school superintendent and the lead learner of a rural district, I need the courage and conviction to make the technology call to take on and transform the system.” Please watch my entire interview with Superintendent John C. Caver, a leader who is changing the education DNA in his Iowa district:

Higher education is a player as well. Many believe K12 is not producing students with the right stuff to succeed in higher learning, or the work force. But what exactly is the right stuff necessary for success? What role does technology play?

“We know kids don’t have the technology, adults don’t have the technology, schools don’t have the technology. Superintendents have to engage in a substantive resource allocation process that spans politics. So it’s no surprise to me when Clay and Horn write about the disruption argument,” says Leonard Schlesinger, Babson College president.

Why are we going to invest in these — millions of classrooms of face-to-face teachers (digital devices/tablets) given the economic issues that organizations face? Why not test a more global solution that at the core deals with — the class issue. As a college president I have to have multi-year plans, my IT budget goes up by 50 percent each year, and I’m tuition dependent. What should I do? We talk about best practices — no one has come into my office with a best practice that has a life of more than six months that I’d be willing to invest against. That’s the reality for large institutions. The question becomes how do you get to a cycle of rapid low-cost — tech — experimentation that doesn’t threaten the enterprise — that doesn’t threaten all of the players — who actually have a vested interest. There is a cultural issue, there is a context issue, and there is also an issue of how we actually all get to what we know vs. what we think we know — and how we accelerate the process for learning and diffusing it,” says Schlesinger.

Schlesinger believes it’s a systems problem. “Generally system problems require a systems solution. So the question is how do we move from the isolated pieces of the puzzle. There’s no question that there are a lot of stories about powerful innovation in K12 education, which we can all feel some measure of optimism. What’s missing is the theory of how to go to scale. So, do we really believe that we have in our arsenal a set of assumptions about the nature and content of the change that has to happen both U.S. and globally that actually allows us to think about what that change looks like? Do we have any sense whatsoever what the scale question actually is? I think the answer is — at this time — no, ” says Schlesinger.

Bernie Rhinerson, chief of staff, San Diego Unified School District, who works at the strategic, planning and communications level as well as closely with the district IT director and superintendent, is scrambling to sustain the education technology innovations they have, and already working in SDUSD digital learning classrooms — with students and teachers.

“We’re a large, high poverty, urban district with 114,000 students in 180 schools. One third of those students are English Language Learners (ELL). We have all the demographics of a difficult urban school district, but we’ve seen six straight years of academic improvement in the California Standards Test. We’ve tripled the science scores in the last five years, and had a steady improvement in math and English achievement across the board. Achievement gap is still an issue, and we continue to focus on it. In that context, with our schools getting better we are trying to make the transition to digital classrooms — for transforming the learning environments in every classroom in the district. I think our teachers are starting to see the change and the difference and becoming true believers.

In 2008 the voters approved a construction bond, which included about 340 million dollars for technology infusion to transform our classrooms. We prioritized the spending of that bond money to put technology first. We front-loaded the bond proceeds to invest in digital classrooms. We created what we called the I21 Classroom, which includes a suite of products/tools — a Promethean ActivBoard (interactive whiteboard), a document camera, a teacher audio system, and 1:1 Lenovo netbooks — for every student. And we phased it in — we’re in our fourth year now. The first year was 3rd grade, 6th grade and one level of high school. Then we went to 4th grade, 7th grade and another level of high school. Next were 5th grade, 8th grade and another level of high school. So those 3rd grade students in 2009, after the bond passed, would see a digital learning classroom every year — with 1:1 computing, and interactive Promethean boards, as well as all the tools that go with them. That allowed teachers to flip instruction and work in a different way in the classroom. There was a lot of professional development that went with that — and a lot of change.

Recently, we purchase about 20,000 iPads — spending about 10 million dollars. This is part of our evolution — moving from netbooks to tablets. In another year, we will have transformed 7,000 classrooms into a digital learning environment. Teachers and students are beginning to use the tools through the iPad rather than a netbook.

Because in California we use school construction bonds to afford major technology funding, we get a lot of pushback. The question becomes: Why are you buying a $400 netbook or iPad with a construction bond that you’re paying off in 25-30 years — that’s crazy? And I have to say: Yes, you’re right, but there’s no other way to transform our learning environments. The state doesn’t give us money for technology, but they do legally allow school districts to buy technology with construction bond funding. So that’s what we’ve been able to do. Anecdotally, our teachers are using it, they can’t see going back to the old way of teaching once they have a classroom like this. And our students can’t go back to paper and pencil.

There’s a challenge to it, now, because once we’ve spent the money — our technology — Promethean boards, iPads, netbooks have a life expectancy — and they’ll need to be upgraded or replaced — with whatever is new out there. So, where we used to spend for textbook adoptions — hundreds of dollars — I think the hope is we can spend that money on new devices. We are looking at a technology sustainability cost of 10-15 million a year. In a district our size, and when you have 7,000 classrooms, sustaining what we’ve started becomes a large general fund cost each year.

So, we’re going back out for another bond issue. And one of the things we’re telling our voters is we’ll do 15 years of sustainability for our I21 Classrooms. We can’t go backwards. The alternative is using general funding from the state that could be spent on teachers, or other things. That 2.1 billion dollar bond needs to get 5 percent of the vote. This bond will raise taxes; we’re looking forward to plenty of political debate. That, along with higher state taxes being proposed for education purposes — our bond issue becomes a much more complicated proposition.

If the state funding issue doesn’t pass, we’re looking at more furlough days for teachers — possibly 14 or more fewer school days — as a budget solution. Sustaining our learning environment, that we know works, becomes more politically difficult. New creative ideas will be mort difficult to launch. We’re at a turning point on how we’re going to support and maintain our digital learning environments. (At the time of this column’s publication, SDUSD’s bond vote is scheduled for November 6, 2012, along with the presidential ballot.)

A Typewriter Moment: What? You thought I wouldn’t tell a story?

Getting the tools and technology in the hands of teachers and students isn’t new — only the tech is different. I remember scrounging for typewriters. That was a kind of technology we used before computers. It involved pounding hammer-like letter keys into a flimsy inked ribbon (rarely inked) and onto a piece of white paper. The drier the ink ribbon, the harder we pounded the letter keys. It didn’t help, but like shouting, it felt better. The noise was something only a woodpecker could love.

In those days, nothing plugged in except the record player. We all seemed to have one of those. I was teaching 1st graders and needed a quick way for my 5- and 6-year old students to get the stories they were telling onto a printed page.

You’d be amazed at the words first-graders use in telling stories and then are able to recognize in reading later — because the words have more meaning to them. Anyway, I grabbed every manual typewriter working or broken, jammed or dry-ink-ribbon knotted in the building. Luckily, I was able to fix or use most of those ancient key tappers.

Parent volunteers, easy to get in those days, manned the typewriters and took dictation from all my students. Kids then illustrated their literary masterpieces, read them to anyone who would listen, taped them to themselves or the walls — and brought them home to share. That primitive technology helped make non-readers readers. Talk about a writers’ workshop — we had a factory — churning out every genre. I also discovered that students wanted to know more and do more with their writing. Waiting for parent helpers and the typewriters made students impatient, and the dictation option didn’t happen all day. The pencil on paper alternative came in handy, but those typewriters were better at increasing meaningful vocabulary. First graders, like most kids are sponges for knowledge if they need to know — and say — something that’s important to them.

Parents and administrators talked about my reader/writers. I caught heck from everyone for hoarding typewriters — even though those typewriters had been collecting dust. It was all worth it. Other teachers wanted to do the same — and it wasn’t just the other 1st grade teachers. Good ideas, modified, worked with all students, at different levels and subject areas.

Before I could figure out how to get more typewriters, these weird boxes with little TVs on top started to show up in the building, and the upper grades had more of them. I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to start scrounging those. That was a long time ago. Unfortunately, educators are still scrounging tech. Not all are good at it, have the time for it, or in a position to do it. Getting today’s tools in classes shouldn’t be a game for only those who have figured out how to collect more of the right pieces.

The right tools make a difference.

Today, wouldn’t it be spot-on to help districts, specifically public schools get useful and appropriate technology, and of course that would be different depending upon need, to all students and teachers in classrooms — and then go from there? Help them to figure out ways of sustaining as well. Teachers and students changing learning is an education outcome worth talking and taking action about! I know the education marketplace has a big heart and plenty of expertise, here, and I know that students, teachers, and parents/consumers have really good memories, too. Get together on this — it’s important.

(Royal Note: I’d like to thank the Dell folks for getting me in the same room with Superintendent Valeria Silva, Anthony Salcito and Leonard Schlesinger for this column.)

Ken Royal is a teacher/education and education technology blogger/reporter, video interviewer, podcaster, education event news commentator with 34 years of classroom/school and instructional technology experience. His teaching accomplishments include being four-time district teacher of the year, Connecticut Middle School Teacher of the Year and Bill and Melinda Gates award for Technology School of Excellence. Reach Ken at ken@ravepubs.com