“Hey, Lowell went to a technology conference”

Those are probably troubling words to many of you, I know. And I am sorry to say that I found the technology on display at the conference Page and I attended a few weeks ago to be pretty impressive. For starters, the conference was planned, advertised, broadcast, and documented entirely in cyberspace on a wiki, which means not only that you could have followed along without leaving Portland but also that you can still attend or relive whichever workshops you choose simply by pushing here. The conference took place at the Science Leadership Academy, which is a two year old public laptop magnet school in Philadelphia. While presenters came from around the country bringing with them a staggering array of expertise, a major part of the learning for me came from seeing a school that was designed and staffed to integrate the latest and greatest technologies.

I will say, however, that although Page and I were in the presence of such cutting edge technologies and the current masters-of-the-universe at using them, some of my strongest and most enduring impressions might not be what you would expect.

Impression One: By the time I arrived at the Science Leadership Academy on Friday afternoon, it was nearly time for dismissal. Students were gathered in the cavernous cafeteria space, which was easily visible from the street. As I looked in what I saw was a diverse group of youth, laptops abandoned, energetically interacting with each other. They were networking the old fashioned way.

Impression Two: Over the next two days, I had heard many of these students talking about their impressions of the school as they they were integrally involved in producing the conference, taking our coats at the door, guiding us to rooms, acting as tech support, and making presentations. While coming from different mouths, the take was universal: students liked the school because their teachers are nice, excited by teaching, and care about the students as people. Despite the fact that, in the words of the principal, “using technology at SLA is like breathing the air,” not one student answered the question “Why do you like it here?” with a reference to technology.

Impression Three: The conference presenters, some of the leading nation’s leading educational technologists, repeatedly emphasized that good teaching with technology is simply good teaching. That belief is evidenced in the conference Guiding Principles below.

Guiding Principles of EduCon 2.0:

1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members
2) Our schools must be about co-creating — together with our students — the 21st Century Citizen
3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.
4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
5) Learning can — and must — be networked.

In short, I learned again that what should be important to us now is what has always been important at Waynflete: the quality of teaching and learning. Furthermore, I was comforted that the leading educational technologists in the country universally defined quality in a way that we embrace: engaging, creative, relationship based, inquiry driven, and thinking oriented. Even SLA’s core challenge, articulated by the principal of that inner city public school, seemed familiar: combating a sense of entitlement that too often accompanies student empowerment.

Does that mean that all of this talk about 21st century schools really amounts to yet another frantic episode of high pitched change rhetoric fueling an ill-conceived and soon-to-be derailed bandwagon ride to nowhere, to which our profession is so famously prone?

No, because the societally driven cyberspace changes pertain directly to our bailiwick: accessing information, creating and communicating ideas, working collaboratively. Thus, I believe we have a fundamental responsibility to teach our students to use the tools and methods they will find outside of Waynflete. As I look around our classrooms, I believe we are making progress. Happily, my glimpse into the future at SLA tells me that fulfilling this responsibility can enhance, not detract from, good teaching practice.  Confident in our knowledge of what good teaching is, I feel strongly that we are up to the challenge of ushering in the future.