How do you model and explore new opportunities for learning in your own practice?
This summer marks thirty years since graduating high school. Several of my old teachers are STILL teaching at my high school. They model and explore powerful learning, even in their sixties. Current students still feel the magic the class of 1989 experienced, and that is a testament to their power as educators.
Technology is the accelerator but learners are the driver. For nearly a quarter century in education, I have heard that "computers in the classroom" and "1:1 initiatives" will help drive success and lead to equity. Having technology is one thing; having the right technology and knowing how to use it is another.
Alan Jones was my 10th grade Geometry teacher and, for at least one semester of senior year where I thought I could handle it, Trigonometry. Except for Algebra II, I was a C and D student in math. I just did not get it. I struggled in Mr. Jones' class, but I loved his goofiness, intellectual brilliance, and penchant for pissing off the wrong people. A trophy in his ongoing example of the latter was an old TRS-80 computer, the "Trash 80" as we children of the Apple IIe called it.
It was 1988, and during my abortive attempt at senior year math I noticed the old gray doorstop sitting on his back table. I hadn't seen one of those monsters since grade school. Why in the world did he have one in his room?
Mr. Jones was a slight, rail-thin man with a scraggly beard, wire glasses, and a monotone delivery. He looked like George McFly's beatnik cousin. He was an inveterate runner, and could be seen running all over town, even in the dodgiest of Vermont winters. Like all distance runners, Alan Jones was a glutton for punishment and quietly gloried in running his own route, even if it meant going into traffic. The Trash 80 was a humorous reminder of when he went against school district convention and was rebuked by administration, only to get the last laugh.
In the early 1980s, district administrators decided that the Tandy TRS-80 was the computer system that would populate classrooms. Mr. Jones, being the pesky gadfly and unafraid to call truth to power, wrote a letter to the school board stating that these computers were junk and would be obsolete within a year or two. He advocated that Apple would be a better choice, allowing for word processing and computer learning. He received an angry memo stating that he should stay out of commenting on district technology decisions.
Sure enough, Jones' words rang true and within a year the gray behemoths were mothballed and Apple IIs populated the computer labs and classrooms.
"Mr. Jones," I asked. "What's with the Trash 80?"
"Oh," he smiled, stroking his beard. "That's my reminder of administrative incompetence and not listening to teachers."
My district is not a "1:1" environment but we have moved to mobile carts of Chromebooks, which makes a lot more sense financially and practically. They are cheap to replace and fit perfectly with the online and app based platform instead of expensive software. The platform is adaptable, and while Chromebooks may take a beating from student use, their functionality will not be obsolete in a year's time.
In the library, I am constantly exploring how learners can drive their journey. I will pull kids in and ask them to try out new apps and extensions and give feedback. The focus is on them as learners and not an expensive piece of technology.
Mr. Jones succumbed to cancer several years after I graduated. I kept his obituary and put it in one of my journals. I can't say I grasped much of the math he taught, but I never forgot his belief that technology is the accelerator, not the driver.
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