Technology Skills Needed by School Leaders in 2018 Part 1

1. Technology Skills Needed by School Leaders in 2018Part 1 Jim Jeffery, PhD Emeritus Dean and Professor School of Education, Andrews University jimjeff@andrews.edu

2. What I will cover in this Two Part Presentation • An overview of technology usage in 2018. • Neil Postman (1998), How technology changes us (for Good and Bad) and how we NEED to be aware of what might happen as we embrace technology. • Why Administrators MUST become Technology Leaders in their Schools. • What Computer Skills MUST Teachers and Administrators Possess in 2018.

3. Educating in Classrooms • Classrooms were developed in Prussia in the 1770s as a new technology for dissemination of information that the state wanted students to know. • Its purpose was to efficiently deliver a standardized curriculum to as many students as possible. https://gowithfloat.com/2018/01/rapid-doubling-knowledge-drives-change-learn/

4. Compulsory Education • In the 19th century, universal compulsory education at the elementary grades was available in most countries in Classrooms. • In 2018 there are major changes. Quick Look. • 1) Today, Education extends beyond the classroom walls. With computers, iPads and other devices, students are no longer confined to a classroom or a computer lab. • Students can work on assignments anywhere.

5. Beyond the Classrooms • 2) Textbooks are becoming extinct or are more conveniently available online. • 3) There’s a change in student and teacher roles. Rather than the teacher relaying information while the student absorbs and throws it back on tests or quizzes, students can think and research on the Internet.

6. Classroom is changing • 4) Classrooms are becoming more collaborative. With classroom technology students can collaborate with other students • 5) Technology in the classroom allows teacher to deliver more personalized learning. Lessons can be customized to fit each student’s progress and learning style

7. Rapid Growth of Knowledge • In his 1982 book, Critical Path, futurist and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller estimated that up until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. • But by 1945 it was doubling every 25 years, and • By 1982 it was  doubling every 12-13 months.

8. A Knowledge Tsunami • IBM now estimates that by 2020 human information will double every 12 hours. • In The coming knowledge tsunami, Marc Rosenberg showed this diagrammatically. • Let’s look at what this knowledge explosion looks like.

10. Why is this so Important? • Why is this so important for EDUCATORS in 2018??? WDYT? (What • Is there a difference between Information, Knowledge and Wisdom? • YOUR THOUGHTS…….. • Lots of data/information available on the Internet. Can we find “knowledge” on the Internet? Perhaps. Wisdom? Less frequently.

11. Why is this so Important? • Why is this so important for EDUCATORS in 2018??? WDYT? (What Do You Think?) • Second Question. Is there a difference between Information, Knowledge and Wisdom? • YOUR THOUGHTS…….. • Lots of data/information available on the Internet. Can we find “knowledge” on the Internet? Perhaps. Wisdom? Less frequently.

12. God teaches Good Judgement • Through God's words we gain an understanding that God is the one who gives the gift of knowledge- that is an understanding or awareness of something. The Lord however, grants knowledge to those who have an honest relationship with him. • Psalm 119:66. “Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.”

13. Where does knowledge lead? • There are many, many implications • No single person, no matter how brilliant, is going to be able to store a significant fraction of available information/knowledge in their heads, even in one field of study.

15. An Internet Minute • What does this Information Explosion look like in reality? •  Here’s what happens in an Internet Minute in 2018.

17. How Will This Change Education? • NOW - Teachers and Administrators - mostly presenters of information. • Teachers need to become Resource GUIDES, • WHY would I say that? DISCUSSION • SUPPORTERS, MENTORS in 21st century digital learning skills and literacies.

18. WHY…. RESOURCE GUIDES? • Information has grown so much. • No One Teacher Can Know it ALL • Facts/Information is changing so RAPIDLY • “The half-life of knowledge or half-life of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half of the knowledge or facts in a particular area is superseded or shown to be untrue.”

20. In other words…… • “Over time, one group of facts replaces another. • Over time knowledge become more advanced, Sometimes we discover a whole area that we didn’t know about.” • Samuel Arbesman The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

21. Implications for Education • Stay with me for a minute here….. • Another Author – Shane Parrish • “Half-Life: The Decay of Knowledge and What We Can Do About It.”

22. Engineer Careert….One Example • “half-life of an engineering career.  • A century ago, it would take 35 years for half of what an engineer learned when earning their degree to be disproved or replaced. • By the 1960s, that time span shrank to a mere decade …  • Modern estimates place the half-life of an engineering degree at 2.5 to 5 years.”

23. Out of Date College Degrees… • Some skills have only an 18-month window.  • Frequently said that a college degree will be out of date before the loan is paid off.  • Stay with me and see what this means for Education.

24. What This Means……. • Shane Parrish shows that the decreasing half-life of knowledge means that • Lifelong learning is now Required…. • What do you think life long learning means for us as educators???? DISCUSSION • Schools will need to always provide for learners? Teachers will need to be up-to-date.

25. Keeping on Top of Information • “Need to keep on learning. • Must have resources to understand facts. • So that institutions and teachers are always “on top of the information needed to function in the world.” • “Problem. Many people assume that whatever they learned in school remains true years or decades later.” NO…………….

26. Final Thoughts and Implications • Individuals will need to be constantly replacing out-of-date knowledge with new knowledge in a continuous process of unlearning and learning. • There is no longer such a thing as a job for life • https://www.modernworkplacelearning.com/cild/introduction/the-effect-of-information-explosion-and-information-half-life/

27. How will this affect YOU?? • DISCUSSION of these new Realities…… • Your students. How will it affect them? • Your faculty. How will it affect you? • Your Schools. What will change • How will this Affect YOU….. as the School Administrator? WDYT???? Really Think?

28. Changes in Education - TOP 10. • In 2010, the World Bank noted the Top 10 Global Trends in Information and Communications Technology and Education.) • I'm only going to cover 3 of the 10. • I’ll compare 2010 with 2018. Just wait and see the BIG Changes

29. A Look Back…Top 10 (2010) • Back in 2010…. • 1. Mobile Learning. Mobile “smart phones” indispensable tools in Education. • Mobile devices (Smartphones, Ipads) with internet access will be widely used. • In Fact the PC desktop is almost gone. Replaced by PC laptops, Smartphones, iPads.

30. Top 10 (from 2010) • 5. Redefinition of learning spaces. The ordered classroom of 30 desks in rows of 5 may quickly become a relic of the industrial age • Schools re-thinking the most appropriate learning environments to foster collaborative, cross-disciplinary, student centered learning.

31. Final of the Top 10 (from 2010) • 8. Teacher managers/mentors. • Teachers Role changing fro m being the source ofknowledge to an instructional manager • Helping to guide students to identify relevant learning resources, • and providing insight and support.

32. New Ideas in 2018 • “Online education will become so good that face-to-face education will disappear from the educational landscape.” (Christensen (Harvard University – 2018) WDYT??? • Me….. Have Been Teaching and Taking Online Classes for 25 years……. • But Face To Face is still Important.

33. Not Acceptable - Tech Illiterate. • Literally Millions of resources are available on the Internet. • Instruction comes in so many forms… • So, It’s no longer acceptable for educators (and especially for School Leaders) to be technologically ILLITERATE.

34. What has happened in 8 years • 1. Professional learning. Professional development (PD) is out. Professional learning (PL) is in. • What’s the difference? Instead of developing people via PD, • PL is differentiated, personalized and workday friendly for busy educators.

35. Global Learning • 2. Global learning uses technology to develop relationships with their global peers. • Through strategic institutional partnerships and innovative academic, experiential and co-curricular programming, students learn to think critically, observe skillfully, reflect thoughtfully and participate meaningfully.

36. Student Centered Learning (2018) • 3. Student-centered learning. Many schools use it now… Involves much more than giving different kinds of tasks to different students. • Leadership style from directive to consultative -- from "Do as I say" to "Based on your needs, let's co-develop and implement a plan of action.“ WDYT???? • https://www.iste.org/learn/iste-u/personalized-learning

37. But ….Let’s take a Breath • Let’s consider the UPS and DOWNS of all this technology and its use in Schools. • What are the GOOD Things that have come from the use of Technology? • What are the BAD Things that have come from the use of Technology? • This article I use in every class I teach for Andrews. It is Tremeedous……

38. What are the Problems?.. • Neil Postman…..Delivered this talk in 1998 to a gathering of theologians and religious leaders in Colorado • Postman is an American author, media theorist and cultural critic. • He is speaking to concerns regarding “faith” in the new millennium and how technology may be changing it.

39. Postman - The Five Things • Culture always pays a price for technology. • There are always winners and losers in ANY technological change. • Every technology embodies a philosophy, an epistemological, political or social prejudice • Technological change is not additive, it is ecological. • Technology becomes mythic - seen as part of the natural order of things.

40. First Point • Technological change is always a trade-off • It giveth and it taketh away • We always pay a price for technology • The greater the technology, the greater the price • Think of a technology - its pros / its cons ??

41. Second Point • That there are always winners and losers from a new technology • Technological advantages are never distributed evenly • The winners always try to persuade the losers that they are really also winners • The printing press enabled the masses, but hurt the church • Other examples … ?

42. Third Point • Embedded in every technology is a powerful idea - an epistemological, political or social prejudice. • Sometimes that bias is greatly to our advantage; sometimes it is not: • The printing press annihilated the oral tradition • Telegraphy annihilated space • The computer is affecting our communities

43. Fourth Point • Technological change is not additive; it is ecological • Consequences are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible What does this mean? • What happens if we place a drop of red dye into a beaker of clear water? Do we have clear water plus a spot of red dye? Obviously not. We have a new coloration to every molecule of water. That is what I mean by ecological change. A new medium does not add something; it changes everything

44. Fifth Point • Technology tends to become mythic - perceived as part of the natural order of things. • - eg. The alphabet was invented – it is not natural • Always dangerous because it is then accepted as is, and not easily modified. No going back. • Tends to control our lives than is good.

45. Is Technology Part of God’s Plan? • What do You Think? • Postman (1998): “What I am saying is that our enthusiasm for technology can turn into a form of idolatry and our belief in its beneficence can be a false absolute.” • What Does This Mean?

46. Postman’s Point #5 • The best way to view technology is as a strange intruder, to remember that technology is not part of God's plan but a product of human creativity and hubris, and that its capacity for good or evil rests entirely on human awareness of what it does for us and to us. • Comments?

47. Final Sentence. • Postman (1998) • “We need to proceed with our eyes wide open so that we may use technology rather than be used by it.” • Current Issues: Low Tech Parenting.

48. Low Tech Parenting….. • Yech elites and what they do: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Tim Cook. • In 2007, Gates, implemented a cap on screen time when his daughter started developing an unhealthy attachment to a video game. Later it became family policy not to allow kids to have their own phones until they turned 14. • Today, the average American child get their first phone around age 10.

49. Steve Jobs…. • Jobs, the CEO of Apple until his death in 2012, revealed in a 2011 New York Times interview that he prohibited his kids from using the newly-released iPad. • "We limit how much technology our kids use at home," Jobs told reporter Nick Bilton.

50. Tim Cook • Even Cook, the current Apple CEO, doesn't allow his nephew to join online social networks. Others have condemned social media as detrimental to society. • Chris Anderson, CEO drone maker 3D Robotics, sets limits on social media use (and screen time in general) for his five children. • He worries about bullying from other kids and tech addiction.