Mitch Ward's Posts - Classroom 2.02024-03-29T07:25:13ZMitch Wardhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MitchWardhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1949964769?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=1gd2ccmsome8t&xn_auth=noOur Past or Their Futuretag:www.classroom20.com,2010-11-21:649749:BlogPost:5710942010-11-21T19:10:42.000ZMitch Wardhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MitchWard
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000"><font face="Calibri" size="3">“</font><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Are we preparing students for our past or their future?” Our assistant principal emailed this quote to me while she was listening to a presentation at a conference. It took me right back to my ancient past of about 20 years ago. I had just started a software training business. The bread and butter of…</span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000"><font size="3" face="Calibri">“</font><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Are we preparing students for our past or their future?” Our assistant principal emailed this quote to me while she was listening to a presentation at a conference. It took me right back to my ancient past of about 20 years ago. I had just started a software training business. The bread and butter of software training in those days was WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. I was a successful trainer because I provided every detail of every step of every operation my clients needed to use these programs in their businesses. Each lesson also included a cheat sheet with all the steps faithfully recorded. The clients loved this. They did not have to think or understand, just faithfully follow the directions.</span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font color="#000000">I believed our training program was advanced because we provided “just in time” training whereas most training companies offered generic one size fits all training. I would observe and analyze what the clients were doing at work and create a training program to meet their specific needs. This “just in time” training with explicit instructions was very popular with companies because it was quick, less expensive, and immediately effective.</font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font color="#000000">About the time Microsoft Office, with its WYSIWYG interface, was becoming more popular we hired a new young trainer. He insisted that students needed to understand how programs worked so they could figure out the details of using them on their own. No step-by-step instructions or cheat sheets were included in his training. He lasted about a month. Our clients had no desire to think about or understand how these programs worked. They just wanted to know how to do exactly what they needed to do to get their jobs done with the least amount of bother possible.</font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">Neither did we nor our clients have any idea that our young trainer was the wave of the future. Because we did not train our students to understand how programs work, every time they wanted to use a new tool or feature on a program they would have to come back for more training. Whenever there was an upgrade to a program, former students would have to come back for complete retraining. This constant retraining became frustrating for the employees and costly for the companies. Short term savings were becoming long term expenses.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">We were training our students for the stable world of the past where skill sets could last a lifetime. That young trainer knew the future would be ever changing and would require the mindset of the lifelong learner. Technology is a prime example of our ever changing world. There have been twelve new releases of MS Office during the past eight years. There are thousands of Web 2.0 tools not even imagined even a few years ago. Tens of thousands of smart phone apps have been created in a matter of months.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">So why are there so few training books, manuals, and classes? Our current crop of high school students learned how to operate a TV remote and play Wii games before they learned how to read or write. Between the ages of five and fifteen they have spent thousands of hours using remote controls, electronic game boxes, computers, smart phones and a variety of media players. With new equipment coming out daily simply memorizing how to operate these machines is useless. Teenagers use their knowledgebase not to constantly repeat the same operation over and over, but to analyze, problem solve and master each new piece of equipment and software release.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">Memorization and repetition can no longer be the focus of education. Students must be taught how to learn, and how to learn on their own without our help. Lifelong learning is truly the most important skill set of the future. Children naturally learn through observation, imitation, exploration, play, fantasy and experimentation. Instead of building on the full range natural propensities, traditional teacher-centered schools tend to focus on observation and imitation. Observe the teacher, read the book, and imitate knowing via the almighty test. This sort of learning only reaches the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, remembering. The student-centered model of education includes the exploration, play, fantasy and experimentation; activities that encompass the higher learning skills of understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. We can no longer afford to prepare students for our past. It is time to revamp our curriculum to meet the needs of their future.</font></p>Plagiarism and Platotag:www.classroom20.com,2010-09-03:649749:BlogPost:5043432010-09-03T04:16:47.000ZMitch Wardhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MitchWard
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">If you ever wish to engage a high school faculty in a lively discussion, just mention the word plagiarism. Students copy and paste volumes from the Internet. They unashamedly copy each other’s homework in the hallways. They will look teachers right in the eye and swear that every word of their perfect essay came straight from their own minds. Research leaves no doubt that plagiarism is rampant in our…</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">If you ever wish to engage a high school faculty in a lively discussion, just mention the word plagiarism. Students copy and paste volumes from the Internet. They unashamedly copy each other’s homework in the hallways. They will look teachers right in the eye and swear that every word of their perfect essay came straight from their own minds. Research leaves no doubt that plagiarism is rampant in our high schools and colleges. Teachers often focus on this most basic form of plagiarism, copying text from an undocumented source. However, there is another, more insidious, form of plagiarism.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">It was during my junior year of college that I first became aware of this more advanced form of plagiarism. I enrolled in a class about Plato, one of my favorite philosophers. I was introduced to Plato during a two year experimental lower division program in which 120 students and 6 professors studied the history of western culture. This program stressed critical thinking. Logical arguments, well documented and thoughtfully written, were the avenue to success during those two years. My first essay in my upper division class about Plato was written just as I had learned during my two years lower division studies. To my mind, t was one of my better papers.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">The professor gave me a “C” on that essay. When I asked him why he gave me the “C” he told me it was because the paper did not reflect his ideas. I asked him if he thought my thesis was a good one and if it was well documented. His answer was affirmative for both questions. Then he told me that I missed the point. His objective in these assignments was not to read about my ideas. His objective was to find if I had listened to and understood his ideas. I got it. Just like high school. So I plagiarized his ideas for the rest of the semester and got my “A” in the class.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">The irony of the situation was eclipsed by my shock over the narrow-mindedness of that professor. We were studying Plato, the godfather of the dialectic, and we were being told the path to knowledge, or at least to passing this course, was not by questioning the arguments of the professor but by plagiarizing them. No questioning, no argument, and no synthesis of ideas were allowed in this course. Whatever we learned about dialectical reasoning would not be an outcome of the way this course was taught.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">Some teachers may agree with that professor. After all, aren’t teachers the purveyors of information? Must not students show they understand this information? To some extent, this is true. But this sort of learning is the bottom rung of the education ladder. Information is now available everywhere, more than any of us could ever absorb. What students really need to learn is critical thinking, problem solving, and metacognition. According to</font> <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism"><font color="#0000FF" size="3" face="Calibri">dictionary.reference.com</font></a> <font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">plagiarism is “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.” In every essay in my Plato class following my first fateful mistake I boldly plagiarized the thoughts of that professor. I received an “A” for my efforts. Later in college I continued to plagiarize the thoughts of my professors and of my textbooks. I did this because I soon learned that this was the path to attaining good grades.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">Thanks to online plagiarism checking programs like Turnitin.com copying text should be a thing of the past. Since I implemented this program at my high school five years ago most essays written there have been recorded in the Turnitin.com database, along with almost everything posted on the Internet. Direct copying as a form of plagiarism has become nearly impossible for our students.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">When it comes to the copying of ideas however, plagiarism is alive and well. This is where our schools are failing our students. Schools are so caught up in what students must know; they forget how much students need to understand. Schools need to emphasize critical thinking, dialectical reasoning, and innovation. Just as there are skills that enable students to memorize the states and their capitals, there are skills that enable students to synthesize information to create original and exciting works.</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Calibri">It’s been over 2300 years since Plato wrote his famous dialogues exemplifying dialectical reasoning. His works have become an integral piece of the foundation of Western philosophy. But where is dialectical reasoning in our curriculum? How many students even know what it is? How many high schools have any of Plato’s dialogues on their required reading lists? Wouldn’t it be valuable if students were taught how to use rational discussion to resolve differences? Or maybe we should continue to encourage our students to plagiarize our lectures and textbooks just as my college professor did in his attempt to teach the true meaning Plato’s dialogues.</font></p>Macaroni and Cheese: The Key to Understanding Educationtag:www.classroom20.com,2010-06-18:649749:BlogPost:4803282010-06-18T07:11:46.000ZMitch Wardhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MitchWard
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><font color="#000000"><font size="3">It seems that however well 21st Century education is explained the vast majority just do not understand what it’s about. It doesn’t matter that the roots of 21<sup>st</sup> Century education go all the way back to the ancient Greeks. It doesn’t matter that 21<sup>st</sup> Century education is not some new fad here in the United States. John Dewey was writing about this stuff…</font></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><font color="#000000"><font size="3">It seems that however well 21st Century education is explained the vast majority just do not understand what it’s about. It doesn’t matter that the roots of 21<sup>st</sup> Century education go all the way back to the ancient Greeks. It doesn’t matter that 21<sup>st</sup> Century education is not some new fad here in the United States. John Dewey was writing about this stuff during the beginning of the last century. Benjamin Bloom came out with his taxonomy some 50 years ago. </font></font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><font color="#000000"><font size="3">When it comes to talking about 21<sup>st</sup> Century education I know all about it. But am I really there, or am I still a product of my 20<sup>th</sup> Century education? I discovered the answer to this question when my daughter invited my wife and me over to her house for a family dinner of macaroni and cheese. When the oven door opened and I saw my daughter’s macaroni and cheese I had a macaroni and cheese epiphany! Even though we are a decade into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, parts of my brain still dramatically reflect my 20<sup>th</sup> Century education. This revelation will take a little explaining.</font></font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">I learned to make macaroni and cheese in the same way I learned almost everything in school. The teacher, in this case it was my mother, told me exactly how to make macaroni and cheese. The recipe from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Betty Crocker’s Cookbook</i> was followed to the letter. My macaroni and cheese turned out exactly like my mother’s and probably exactly like the millions of others who believed that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Betty Crocker’s Cookbook</i> was the bible of cooking. It certainly worked for me. Meatloaf, enchiladas, and most of the recipes I used throughout college came directly from this one source. I never though about why they tasted they way they tasted. It never occurred to me that there might be other ways to make these recipes. The pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Betty Crocker’s Cookbook</i> held the truth. That’s all I needed to know.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">School offered the same type of education as my mother. Beginning with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Dick and Jane</i> we went from one standardized text to the next. There was one math series with one way of doing division. There was one social studies series with one interpretation of history. The spelling books contained only the words someone determined we all needed to spell. The readers contained the stories we all needed to read. And the standardized tests – they neatly tested all we learned in the standardized curriculum.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">In college I began to learn there were other ways to teach and learn, but it was not until I had a grown daughter that macaroni and cheese enlightenment came to me. The problem stems from one instruction in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Betty Crocker’s Cookbook</i> recipe. It is still there to this day. The Internet version reads, “Pour into ungreased 2-quart casserole.” You see, we are a family that loves that wonderful crispy crust that forms over the top during the baking process. For years we watched each other to make sure no one skimmed too much crust. We would spoon vertically so the crusty and non-crusty macaroni and cheese were evenly distributed among us. When the children were especially good we would give them extra crust. After dinner my wife and I would take the casserole into the kitchen and scrape the crusty bits off the side of the casserole while bemoaning our sacrifice to our children.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">After many years of dealing with the shortage of crust the fateful evening came when our daughter invited us to dinner with her husband and our two grandchildren. The main course was macaroni and cheese. We waited in anticipation as she removed the main course from the oven. Her macaroni and cheese was not in a casserole pan. It was in a glass cake pan. The pan was long and wide and flat with tons of crust. There was enough crust to satisfy everyone. Why didn’t we think of that? Change the shape of the pan. This simple solution solved a problem that had been haunting us for years. Our daughter could not believe we have never thought of this obvious solution.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">My education both at home and at school was by the book. Critical thinking and problem solving were not part of the curriculum. Even though I am an advocate of these essential 21<sup>st</sup> Century skills I realize that I do not always use these skills. Old habits die hard.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">This made me wonder. How would a teacher with 21<sup>st</sup> Century orientation present a lesson on making macaroni and cheese in today’s classroom? She would likely begin with an essential question. What is it about macaroni and cheese that makes it such a wonderful food? This is a great question because it focuses the lesson without presupposing a single correct answer. Is it the crust? Is it the kind of cheese? Maybe it’s the pasta; seashells or elbow? What’s better, homemade or store-bought?</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font size="3">Research will be needed. Polls, interviews, discussions and debates will surely follow. Recipes and commercial products will need to be tested. Is there a perfect macaroni and cheese, or is it a matter of preference? Which is the healthiest? Which is the greenest? Do we care? Was that blue cheese recipe a breakthrough or a disaster? Why isn’t studying the Great Depression or Jane Eyre this much fun? They can be. We just need to find the right recipe.</font></span></p>