Educator, Thinker, Consultant

Category: Education (Page 1 of 3)

Running Your Own

Ben Werdmuller, who is brilliant, has a great write up, Running your own site painful. Hosting Nazis is worse. Seriously, this is a GREAT article. Please go read it (and then come back here).

He makes important points about social media, where your stuff is hosted, options for discoverability and more. He focuses on writers, but so much is equivalent to educators.

I’d say his wonderful article is relevant in two ways for educators:

  1. Parent/Community Communication
  2. Educational Resources.

Parent/Community Communication

Parent/Community communication is a challenge in education. All schools have a website and post to the website. However, people don’t generally know when or if to check the website. As social media took off, schools transitioned to posting on social media, mostly Twitter (now called X) and Facebook. Schools also posted to Instagram. Lots of schools also send out emails and texts.

As Ben Werdmuller points out, schools don’t have control over Twitter (X), or Instagram. So, while schools benefit from the audience of those social media sites, schools are also at the mercy of their decisions and plans. So, if a platform were to allow Nazis to post (and promote those posts) the school may be appearing to support those kinds of activities. However, this gets complicated as lots of parents/community members may use the site and maybe they do not see the Nazi posts. or maybe the site gets sold and goes out of business. Now schools have to redirect parent/community members to a new site(s).

A website based upon a domain that you own means that you have control over that. By owning a domain, schools have control over who gets to post and what things look like. However, that means that schools have to develop and promote the site.

Parents/Community members usually find other social sites “easier to use”. They really don’t have to do much. This is a big strength, and a big weakness. They may or may not see specific things. Facebook has gone through many periods where they were/are tightly controlling what people see, what gets promoted (thus seen).

Ideally, parents/community members would set up their own RSS feeds to follow. However, realistically, they aren’t going to do this. (Even though RSS is actually very easy to use. I personally use NetNewsWire). It is a mindset that needs to be developed.

So, schools post to websites, X, Facebook, and Instagram. They may be re-evaluating that as sites change, though given the amount of issues that have come up with Facebook and haven’t resulted in people moving away says that it would take a lot for people to actually move to another platform.

Educational Resources

I see similar issues with Educational Resources. Quizlet is a pretty popular flashcard creator. Recently, I’ve heard that they refuse to sign a DPA (Data Privacy Agreement). Thus, some schools are moving away from allowing access to the site. Some teachers are upset. They have spent years creating resources.

This is really part of a common issue though. Most educational resources need to collect money in order to continue to provide services. Thus, educational resources are constantly adjusting things to make sure that they can stay in business.

Long ago, I was talking to someone and used the phrase “you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else”. (I know this because that person repeated it back to me in a future meeting.) Lots of educators have bought into (via their time, and work) an educational resource or ten.

Schools also purchased a variety of resources through the ESSR funds (COVID relief). That money has come to an end. School budgets will be getting tight again. There is the possibility that schools won’t be able to fund all of the educational resources that they have over the last few years.

The alternative though is open-source. Open-source has the advantage of being controlled by the district. It is not free, there are some costs involved in hosting, configuring, and updating. However, it is much, much more affordable. Open-source software tends to not be as pretty as commercial resources. Plus, open-source software tends to be more powerful, but less focused. So, there is some learning involved by the teacher (you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else“). If educators would come together and create and share things, the effect could be extremely powerful.

So, what are some examples?

Both of these are open-source and powerful. H5P allows users to create Flashcards and much more. Both have platforms available to share work. Even more powerful for me is that both can allow students to create resources.

So, what’s going to happen is that some educators will switch from one commercial product to another. Teachers may be upset and frustrated that they have lost a bunch of work. They will then switch to another commercial product. That will work for a while until a business model changes, free accounts become too limited to be useful, or something else. They will get frustrated. They will move to the next product.

What a powerful world it would be if the students were doing the creating. What a powerful world it would be if educators took control of educational resources. What a powerful world it would be if educators were sharing, and adapting resources.

Snowplow Parents

The New York Times recently posted an article (apparently a subscription is now required) about online grades and “Snow Plow Parents”.

What is a “Snow Plow” parent? According to Parent:

…a snowplow parent removes any obstacles in their child’s way. This type of parent does not want their child to experience any discomfort or problems, so the parent intervenes and fixes it for their child.

I remember “Helicopter Parents”, those parents who hover over their children. I remember that when my own kids went off to college, there were a few parents who actually moved to the college town that their kid was attending.

Snow Plow and Helicopter parents are related. Both take on way too much of their child’s life.

I found the article interesting and insightful. There is a definite bias early on in the article about the “dangers” of online grades being available for parents, which is balanced out later in the article. (Thus, it is important to read the whole article.)

Really, the article ends up focusing on the importance of students developing agency and responsibility. Oh, and how some parents are taking that away from kids.

Part of the advice is about making sure that parent’s connection with kids goes beyond grades:

…parents shouldn’t want conversations about grades “bleeding into every conversation you have with your kids. That does a disservice to your relationship, and it does a disservice to your child.”

A big focus of the article is about kids developing executive functioning.

“Part of executive functioning and personal management is understanding what’s the right time and place to have a conversation versus not. And so students do need to develop that,” she said.

The article even addresses a couple of interesting issues:

At its heart, the issue is that too many parents see their children’s grades as the ultimate reflection on themselves and their parenting.

and

There were kids, he said, who were “incredibly skilled at gaming the system” — grade grubbing rather than achieving anything intellectually.

In the end, the author admits that it’s not all negative.

… not every teacher I spoke to had a negative experience with online grade books. Some said that the technology made their lives easier and improved communication with some parents. Even the teachers who pointed out the unseemly behavior of some parents and students stressed that it wasn’t a majority who abused the system.

I find this an interesting time to be a parent (just like all the other ones in history). Parents today deal with social media, connectedness, information overload, pressure to be successful, and on and on.

I don’t think any of this is really new, but it is new for each parent. Also, the number of parents who are truly “Snow Plow” is pretty minimal (still makes it rough for those particular kids).

So, what about online gradebooks? These can be beneficial. However, it is also important to establish how grades work in the classroom early on in the year (or now). Set out expectations of when work will be graded. Communicate how grades are calculated. Take advantage of the power of the gradebook. I have found online gradebooks to have much more good than negative. The article even points this out. Remember, no matter what system that you use, you could have a lot of these same issues. Many of these are “people” issues, not technology issues.

If you are a parent of a child under 18, do your best. Help them grow. They’ll make mistakes. They’re human. Don’t be a Snow Plow.

Reader’s Theater

The wonderful Shawn McGirr sent along the Reader’s Theater activity he created. The activity has students picking a short story and presenting that story to the class.

Students select their script. All students get a question/discussion page after the performances are done. During rehearsals, students in each skit group design questions in the StudentQuiz activity that restricted to their group until the end and students answer student created questions.
Final exam is a pool of all the questions with a random number from each StudentQuiz activity pulled for the final test.

This is a phenomenal activity. The students get to lead the way. They are creating the questions.

Shawn sent along an example of the activity. However, when I imported the activity and tried to use it, I hit an error screen. Shawn utilized StudentQuiz in Moodle. StudentQuiz is a great plug-in that I’ve used before.

Hm. I thought maybe it was due to the original being created from an older version. So, I tried to create a brand-spanking new activity. Drats, same error message. Or maybe not drats. The issue probably isn’t related to the imported activity. So, off to the forums. It is there that I discovered that there is a known issue with StudentQuiz and Moodle version 4.3. The fix is in the pipeline. Hopefully, by mid-January, it will be available.

I do have another Moodle installation though. That one is running Moodle version 4.1 currently. I was able to import the activity there without issue.

The activity is awesome. Shawn has done a great job. The students take the lead. They get to select a piece to be the expert on. The students get to create the questions. The students get to answer the questions created by their peers. The teacher then gets to utilize those student-created questions to create a unique “final exam” for each student. (The teacher can approve the student-created questions. Then, the teacher essentially says, “give each student 20 questions from this bank of 100”.)

MoodleNet Thoughts

I posted on Mastodon about the lack of feedback on Moodle Net. Martin replied asking for feedback. I’ve responded, but I thought that I would flesh out my thoughts a bit here.

I love Moodle and what you can do with it. I love that there isn’t a big money-making, data-sucking, privacy-invasive company running it.

A little background. I’m in the US. Specifically, I’m in K-12 education teaching and learning. Moodle is not super popular. There are certainly a few places, but Moodle is much bigger at the University level than K-12. There is much angst over Moodle. Quite simply, teachers find it “too hard”.

There are reasons that Google Classroom has taken over. It really doesn’t do much (thus, much less to learn for teachers). Google Classroom is essentially handing out worksheets and getting them back (another bonus, teachers understand the worksheet process).

When COVID hit, there was a rush for two things, video conferencing and an LMS. Zoom quickly captured the video conferencing mindshare. So much so, that even now it is pretty much the only game in town. Google Classroom captured the LMS market (note that it not an LMS but that doesn’t matter). It doesn’t even matter that it is not an LMS. The District that I was in at the time evaluated Canvas, Schoology, and Moodle (we had Moodle installed and were known internationally for our work in Moodle – due to Chris Kenniburg). The District chose to go with Schoology. It was “easier”.

MoodleNet

So this is one reason I was (still am) hopeful for MoodleNet. MoodleNet should be a great way to share resources, activities, etc. This means teachers wouldn’t have to create all their own material. This alone would make Moodle “easier”. Teachers could get started.

However, I do not find MoodleNet engaging. I’ve posted some things there, but I don’t get any feedback. There is currently no way to provide feedback. I can’t tell someone that I liked their materials or that I used it with changes. Hence. I reached out to Martin.

I don’t think that this needs to be overly complicated. I thought about ratings, 1-5 stars, adding how it was used, tags, and more. Really though, I think a simple comment box would be the way to go. Let users decide how to use it. Let users make comments. Provide a link back to the profile of the user, what date the comment was made, but otherwise, just free-form comments.

I am hopeful that that would provide a bit of social connections. It would provide the opportunity to provide feedback. It may encourage more people to submit resources.

Some Thoughts on X, er, Twitter

I used to be a Twitter user. I joined Twitter in June of 2008. I used Twitter for a good number of conferences. I met people, made connections, found resources, and more through Twitter.

In 2018, I tried out Mastodon. I loved the idea. However, there really weren’t many educators there. So, I kept the account but also stayed on Twitter.

With the purchase of Twitter, and the changes that wrought, I left Twitter.

There are still tons of people on Twitter, er X. On one hand, I understand why. There are still lots of good links and good people on X. However, X now supports a great amount of misinformation and disinformation. Actively.

I’m off Twitter and I’ll explain why.

Now some people don’t see that much. So, their belief is that it really doesn’t matter. I think it does.

Discrimination, bias, and manipulation matter. Even if you don’t see it all the time. Kind of like, I don’t actively see racial discrimination every day. But I know that it exists. I don’t support places that support racial discrimination even if I don’t necessarily see it.

I won’t support Twitter. Be clear, having an account on Twitter and using it, supports Twitter. If you are logging in to Twitter, if you are checking Twitter, you are supporting Twitter. Obviously, if you are paying for an account, you are supporting Twitter.

I’m choosing not to support the bias and manipulation that is now Twitter. Yet, I understand that others may not have the same opinion. Twitter was a very valuable resource. Lots of educational organizations still support X and Facebook. Recently, a Maine Department of Education representative was asked about a grant opportunity. Their answer was to check “Twitter or Facebook”. This is frustrating to me. In order to get information about a grant I have to give my attention to “Twitter” now X or Facebook (which has been caught lying and doing bad things repeatedly).

Maine, like most states, is very concerned about privacy and security. There is even a current ban on State departments using AI due to privacy and security. Yet, the Maine Department of Education is actively supporting two companies that do not respect privacy and security.

Again, on one hand I understand. It’s hard to keep track of who is supporting what. It’s tough if you don’t obviously see the bias and discrimination.

On the other, isn’t this what being an informed citizen is about? Shouldn’t we be aware of those sites that we support? Do we bear any responsibility to be proactive about combatting discrimination and bias?

H5P in Google Classroom

I’ve been a proponent of H5P. H5P creates interactive activities. I’ve long used it within Moodle to create activities for students to utilize. H5P is open-source. This means that I don’t have to worry about them switching to a paid model and losing all of my material.

H5P has a wide variety of interactive tools. These include Interactive Videos, Flashcards, Dictation Activities, Speak the Word, and much, much more.

However, most teachers only use Google Classroom. Google Classroom is “easy” to use. It also doesn’t do much.

While I have mostly used H5P in Moodle, I have used Lumi as well. Lumi is a stand-alone H5P creation and editing tool. You can download the full application (Mac, Windows, or Linux), so that you own and control all of the data and information. You can use their cloud version as well.

While I was using Lumi, I realized that it will export activities as a web page. Hm. If it’s a web page, one could put the link in Google Classroom. I created an activity, exported that activity to a web page, uploaded the web page to Google Drive, and then linked it in Google Classroom.

Guess what? Google removed the ability to serve web pages from Google Drive, so one still needs to find a place to host the activity. Lumi still makes it easy to create, but you can also use the H5P WordPress plugin. Or, you can take advantage of the power and ease of use of Moodle.

Tech In Education

Background

I’ve long been using Technology in education. I was an early adopter. I clearly remember having one of the first WiFi access points in our district (an Apple “UFO”). I integrated Technology into my classes early on. The students were highly motivated, novelty of technology was high. At the time, I was teaching in a lock-up facility for teenagers. The students had lots of challenges. It was a great place to learn to teach.

I learned how to create worksheets that were easy to change, modify, and adapt. I learned to create quizzes that were different for different students. I had a wide range of student abilities in my classes.

I learned how to differentiate not only the quizzes but the instruction as well. I became a Constructivist. I learned to adjust the pathways so that the students could reach the same standards, but using different materials.

I worked with a variety of teachers who did similar work. Sometimes it looked very different, but many (most?), started including technology into their skill set. It was early on, but there was hope that most teachers would add some technology tools to their skill set.

Administration

I moved into school administration. I took some of my tech skills with me. I leveraged some of those skills to work with others.

For example, I can’t tell you how frustrated I was with calendars for example. We would get updates on calendars about weekly. Let me be clear here, we would get an updated paper calendar through interschool mail weekly. At the time, I kept my calendar on a PalmPilot. (side note, that was a great device, only really replaced by the iPhone – eventually, not the first edition). So every week I had to sit down and do a full review of my calendar. Did this event change? Nope. How about this one? Oh, look, one has been added. I begged the Administrative Assistant responsible for the district calendar to Please use a shared calendar.

I worked with several teachers to implement some laptop programs. We started a laptop program for our sixth graders. We brought in lots of computers for students and staff to use.

I started an after-school program to teach computer skills, with a technology integration focus. These were pretty well attended.

We shared differentiation strategies, actual classroom use, and more at Staff Meetings.

I moved from school administration into district administration as a Technology Director.

Technology Director

I spent about a decade as a Technology Director. I worked to bring in technology use throughout the district. I created a Technology Coach position (with two Technology Coaches) for the district. Together (with more Tech Team members), we focused on how to use technology for student success.

We had bits of success here and there but failed to institutionalize the growth. There were always lots of roadblocks. Lots of misunderstandings.

We did get a program where every teacher was at least expected to create a blog. No, this is not the greatest instructional use of technology, but it did help some teachers move to develop some tech skills. Even more importantly, it increased communication with our parents and community.

iPad Story

I clearly remember having lots of discussions about iPads. When the iPad was first introduced, it was, at least partially, targeted at schools. Several people were pushing how iPads were going to revolutionize education. There was a school in Ireland that went all iPads. Fraser Speirs was widely lauded for his work. Lots of media pushed the possibilities of the iPad. Los Angeles famously signed a billion-dollar iPad program (which promptly crashed and burned).

I was always of the belief that the iPad would never be a really successful product in education UNLESS there was a massive amount of professional development. I’m talking about the kind of professional development that we’ve never done.

Fraser Speirs ran the iPad program for almost a decade. In 2019, Fraser Speirs switched his one-to-one program to Chromebooks.

And, finally, the ultimate switch: moving the world’s first 1:1 iPad school away from iOS to Chromebook. Writing here in 2020 under Coronavirus lockdown, I can honestly say this was the most prescient thing I have ever done.

There was a time where Fraser Speirs argued that the iPad was a content creation device.

This is not meant to be critical of Fraser Speirs. There were several things that just didn’t catch on (like iTunes U), or never really were supported very well.

COVID

COVID hit and everyone went full-on technology. Zoom was purchased by tons of school districts. Learning Management Systems (LMS), or those that pretended to be an LMS – Google Classroom, were brought into schools. Teachers were NOT prepared for this. I posted about this early on, Learning Is Messy. Teachers did an incredible job of adjusting. Naturally, learning looked very different based on the teacher. Generally, though, COVID did not bring great technology implementation. COVID brought some use of technology.

Now that COVID is “over” (it’s not over, but we are acting like it), there is a huge backlash to technology. One of the most popular things I’m hearing is all about how we need to “limit screen time”. (This is actually nothing new. There was pushback about screen time prior to COVID shutting schools down.)

The optimistic side is pushing that teachers will “use the new skills that they developed during COVID”. I’m afraid that I’m not really seeing that. First of all, COVID was a different structure for education. Secondly, I’m not sure that educators were supported much in really using technology.

Technology Understanding

Michigan had a Teachers Technology Initiative (the TTI program) right about 2000. (It’s tough to find information about the program, so I’m going to mostly rely on my memory.) Here is a bit of a write-up from MacWorld:

The Teacher Technology Initiative (TTI) is a voluntary program designed to support teaching and learning in Michigan’s public schools and public school academies through a one-time investment in Michigan’s K-12 teachers. You can learn more at the TTI Web site. The initiative is managed by the Michigan Virtual University, a private, not-for-profit Michigan corporation established in 1998 “to meet the specific workforce development education and training needs of Michigan businesses and industries and their current and prospective employees through the innovative use of electronic learning technologies.”

The idea was to prime every teacher to develop technology skills by providing them with a computer (either a Mac or a Dell). So, lots of computers were purchased and handed out.

Maine has had the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) since right about the same time. Maine has a different focus and has continued.

Teachers now use technology every day. Email is the prevalent communication platform. Many (most?) teachers use a computer every day. Grades are probably entered electronically. Maybe they post assignments on a blog (or Facebook or Instagram).

Yet, for many teachers, there hasn’t been a fundamental change. Sure, the worksheet is now typed up on a computer and printed on the copier. Or maybe the worksheet is shared electronically. But, it’s still a worksheet. (*Note: there is nothing wrong with worksheets. However, if that is the only form of assessment, or the educator isn’t clear about why a worksheet is used, well….).

Writing Across the Curriculum

Recently, I was reading Curmudgucation about Writing Across the Curriculum . Part of the point of the article was that not all teachers were prepared and trained to be writing teachers. And that got me thinking.

I think that technology is much like writing. Teachers still don’t have the requisite training, background, and knowledge to fully implement technology in their classrooms. We don’t really have universally implemented models of education with technology. (Yes, I’m aware of the work with Blended Learning Models. I believe in lots of them and am critical/hesitant/thoughtful about some of them. Blended Learning has been around for quite a while.)

EdTech

EdTech has long been a popular(???) topic in some circles. Different technology tools were going to completely revolutionize education. These tools were going to make teachers obsolete in some cases. Frequently, these were based on Adaptive Learning methods. This is where the software would adjust which lessons/material would be presented next based on what the student was doing or answered on a quiz.

Heck, even Khan Academy was going to take over at one point.

Now comes news that may EdTech is seeing a bit of withdrawal: EdTech is No Longer a Funding Fave.

Future

So, what is the future? Will we start to really investigate how we can make school reflective of student choice? Will we create opportunities for students to differentiate how they learn or prove that they have learned something? Will we help develop teachers to be the best that they can be?

Novel or Boringly Effective?

The school year has come to the end. As is traditional, we had a nice, short meeting with all the staff and lunch. The lunch was fantastic – BBQ.

The short meeting included a brief reflection from each department. The reflection was tied to a success during the year. This is a great strategy and a good time. Each of the departments shared a success during the year. Generally, what was shared was a “big event”.

This though is one of the things that strikes me with Technology. Everyone seems to be looking for the big splash. This is one of the reasons that so many paid programs become so popular. They advertise great things.

I get it. As humans, we have a natural predisposition to “shiny” things. The “ordinary” takes less and less of our attention. The novel grabs our attention. Thus, technology vendors push the “new” (i.e. the novel) constantly. Their job is to make money. To get people (or organizations) to give them money, they need to stand out.

Educators go to conferences, follow famous educators, read books, etc. They see something shiny and want to implement that too.

Meanwhile, we have some terrific technology that is fully implemented and available. This technology has become “boring”. Students could very easily be taking advantage of these tools. However, frequently, educators haven’t figured out exactly how. Part of educators not having that figured out may relate back to the amount of time that educators have to learn new things and how to use those things.

Let’s get a bit more specific. Basic skills of computer use are frequently missing for educators. Things like connecting to a projector and troubleshooting if the screen doesn’t immediately display can be frustrating for many. This should be really, really basic. Projecting is crucial because so many teachers rely on projection as a method of communication. Projection can also be crucial for students to share what they know. How about basic spreadsheet use? Spreadsheets can help students understand facts. Spreadsheets can also help understand charts and graphs. Students should be able to create and understand charts and graphs. Students should also understand how data can be misused. This includes misusing charts and graphs. This is really about critical thinking. Yet, many educators are confused by spreadsheets. Educators may not understand how to create good spreadsheets. By educators not understanding spreadsheets, it makes it difficult for students to learn, develop and grow those critical thinking skills.

Having decent technology skills would help enable educators to differentiate instruction. There are several ways differentiation would be empowered with technology skills.

For starters, these skills would open up opportunities for students to show that they know things in a variety of ways. Having core competencies with technology means that educators could feel comfortable having students create an audio program (frequently called a podcast), create a video, create an interactive presentation, create a website, etc. Students need assistance in the how to do those things. However, once students have those skills, they can utilize them in multiple settings.

Once educators have strong technology skills, other avenues also open up for them. Educators can take advantage of Learning Management Systems to time shift. Those educators can create multiple pathways for students to learn material. This takes work and is probably not very “shiny”. However, this can make huge differences for a wide variety of students.

Student Data Sheet

*Warning, what follows may not be the most efficient or elegant solution to the problem noted. However, it is a solution.

In education, we frequently want to look at multiple data points for a single student. Often these are standardized tests. Looking at the data from a single vendor for a single assessment is usually quite easy. The vendor creates tons of reports. However, combining different results is usually a bit harder.

My first “go-to” is usually a pivot table. Pivot tables will provide great flexibility. However, the end-users (here administrators and teachers) aren’t always comfortable manipulating pivot tables. It can be more confusing rather than enlightening.

So, let’s take a look at what the educators are looking for. Basically, a sheet with a student name, then different assessment results on one line.

I started by exporting a copy of student data with the fields that I need (Student State ID, Student Number, Student Last, Student First Name, Teacher, Grade Level). (This is the information identified as necessary by the school as the end-user. They want teachers to be able to see their students. I added the Student State ID field as an identifier that was common amongst the reporting spreadsheets). I named this Student Data Example. Then I renamed the tab DataView (skipping spaces makes formulas easier).

Next, I added the assessments that we are going to look at (as determined by the school). I also color-coded the assessments.

Now we’re ready for some data.

I’ve exported the NWEA data as a csv file (spreadsheet). Then I looked at the NWEA data. I moved the State ID field to be the first field on the spreadsheet. This is necessary to match the records through a VLOOKUP.

I copied the data to a new tab on the Student Data Example spreadsheet. (*I could’ve done an IMPORTRANGE – which would automatically copy the data, but maybe later). Now I’ve got a spreadsheet with two tabs: DataView (the tab that users will look at) and Fall_NWEA (where I’ve copied the NWEA results for Fall).

Normally, this would be a simple VLOOKUP. However, NWEA has multiple tests per student. That is, a student has probably taken three tests. Each one is a row. Using VLOOKUP would grab the first result and move on. Thus, I couldn’t get the reading score in the reading box for sure. What I need is just the Reading (just the Math, and just the Language) scores on one table.

I created a new tab on the spreadsheet and titled it Fall_NWEA_Reading. I copied the header row (only A through N as those are the columns with data that I need). Then in cell A2 I wrote the following formula:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Reading”)

What this formula does is to copy the data from the Fall_NWEA tab where the information in Column G is “Reading”. This means that I get one result per student that is their Reading score. This is exactly what I need.

Next I duplicate that tab, change the name to Fall_NWEA_Math. Then I click in cell A2 and change the formula from:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Reading”)
To:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Math”)

Now this tab will pull all the data from the Fall_NWEA tab that has the word Math in column G.

Then I repeat that process (duplicate the tab, rename to Fall_NWEA_Language, and change “Reading” to “Language”). Now I have a discrete cell that I can reference on the Student Data sheet.

Back to DataView tab. Under each of the tests, I can now reference a specific cell through VLOOKUP. For example, in the Fall NWEA Math Test Percentile column, I can add the following formula:

=VLOOKUP(A2,Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$M,13, FALSE)

Here are the guts:

  • VLOOKUP is the command.
  • A2 references the cell to compare
  • Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$M- this is the tab to look at (remember it will use the first column on the tab to compare – the $ signs are necessary to lock the formula so that it will search all the way down
  • Column 13 is the column (M) with the data that I want.

Essentially, this looks at the information in cell A2 on the DataView sheet. Then it looks through the first column of the tab Fall_NWEA_Math for a matching result. If it finds one, it can use the data from that row (A through M because that is where I told it look). The next part of the formula (13) says put the data in the cell here. The FALSE means look for an exact match.

Now you can fill that formula down to all the rest of the rows.

Next we’ll grab the Fall NWEA Math Test AchievementQuartile. In the next column, we’ll pretty much copy that formula, but adjust for the appropriate column were the results that we want are. Since I want the data that is in column N, I have to expand two parts – I need to pull data from A-N and I want column 14. Thus:

=VLOOKUP(A2,Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$N,14, FALSE)

That’s it. Now that I have clean usable data, I can repeat this basic process.
Next, we’ll use conditional formatting to highlight the scores per colum, but that’s another post.

Pragmatism vs Possibilities

Now that technology purchasing season is upon us, I’ve been thinking a lot about pragmatism and possibilities.

Pragmatism – “an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.”

I’m using pragmatism to stand for how something will really, actually, in the real world be used.

Technology purchases (and really, lots of purchases) will be made based on the possibilities of the product. The salesforce will highlight the wonderful things that the product can do. Purchasers will focus in the possibilities that a product provides. Decisions will be generated on the great possibilities of the products. Comparisons will be made. The fact that one product can (at least theoretically) do something may tip the balance and cause that product to be purchased.

Once the products are purchased, the real issue becomes how it is actually used. No matter the best intention, rarely is anything used to its maximum. I would argue that technology in education is a prime example of that. Educators are kind, optimistic, wonderful people. They truly want kids to learn. They have the world’s greatest intention. But, you know what they say about good intentions….

One example of this, which isn’t super contentious, is the Swivl. The Swivl is a base device into which a teacher places an iPad or iPhone (technically an Android phone would work too, but come on 😀 ). The teacher then can wear a pendant, and the iPad would follow the teacher. This system allows for the teacher to record what is going on in class. This could be used to spotlight the students as well. The idea being that the teacher could record instruction, small group work, student responses, etc.

I remember seeing this making the rounds. I ended up purchasing one, trying it out, and giving it to my Tech Coaches, and having them try it out. Our verdict: Cool, but ultimately no one is going to use it. Oh, we had some additional teachers try it out as well. Specifically, we had some instructional coaches try it with teachers that they were working in. Their verdict, “no thank you”.

See, the idea was fine enough. In reality, though, few teachers want to be recorded. Even those that do, don’t want to put a lot of time, energy, or effort into the process. Let’s be honest, dealing with video requires editing. Anyway, no one really wanted to work with the Swivl.

Then….

A couple of my bosses went to a gee-whiz, bang-up presentation at our ISD (Intermediate School District – the level between the local district and the State). They came back excited!

Them: “Have you seen the Swivl”?
Me: Yes.
Them: We need to buy a bunch of them.
Me: We have one. How about I let you try it out?
Them: How much are they? When can we get more?
Me: I’ll loan you the one that we have. Try it out. Have some teachers try it out.

So, I sent them off with the Swivl to try it out with some teachers.
(Hint: we didn’t buy any more.)

There’s no blame here. The sales pitch was solid. The possibilities were terrific. The shiny factor is high. Who doesn’t want to be able to review their teaching? Who doesn’t want the coaches to have deep discussions with the teachers that working with? Heck, one of my teacher friends even spent his/her/their very own money to purchase one. Again, the possibilities were terrific. However, pragmatically? Pragmatically, these end up in the closet. ( *Side note, time to create the Closet of Great Intentions?)

Another example of possibilities versus pragmatic selection seems to be the adoption of a Learning Management System (LMS). I’ve seen the selection of an LMS (by several districts) end up being decided upon by a good sales pitch. In reality, much of the use of an LMS is extremely limited. So, districts end up deciding whether to adopt LMS A or LMS B based on a sales pitch of possibilities (almost none of which educators will use).

One final example. I was chatting about this with a friend from another district. He smiled stated that they ended up selecting an EL program based on 27 things, but they only end up using 1% of the program. (The conversation was also about the money that districts spend for curriculum resources (and how those come to be viewed as the curriculum), but that’s another post.)

This seems to be deeply ingrained into the technology and technology selection. I’ve heard this from a plethora of people in technology.

What’s your possibility vs pragmatic example?

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