Digital Resources vs. Textbooks - With Adoption of the Common Core It's Getting Easier!

Forty-eight states are adopting the new Common Core education standards and educators will need to find curriculum resources to implement them. With so many states focused on the same standards, common curriculum is being developed across the country. Several California bills are being passed to keep the implementation process moving, according to John Festerwald of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. The development of 21st century assessments is underway by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and they will be released in the 2014-15 school year, a year earlier than the curriculum frameworks and state sponsored textbook selection.

While full implementation of the standards is a few years out, many California districts are adopting the standards and developing curriculum already, preparing for pilot implementation in the 2013-2014 school year. This is a good thing. So do we still need a textbook adoption process?

In Seattle, there is a revolt against textbooks, led by state representative Reuven Carlyle, because of the immense amount of money ($64 million per year) spent on new texts, while still leaving many outdated versions in students' hands or in warehouses, still shrink-wrapped. He proposes that educators move to digital learning resources, which are more current, engaging, and very often, free! But many oppose this approach, preferring to continue the tradition of loading student backpacks with heavy textbooks - where the content is more tangible.

Implementing digital learning requires a fundamental shift in belief for traditional-thinking teachers, administrators, school boards, and politicians. As Geoff Fletcher describes in his article, ""Driving Digital Change." Sometimes, change is accelerated by conditions and forces making it urgent. In this case, according to Fletcher, the move to digital learning is being driven by a sharp decrease in available funds, a need for efficiency in making content available to students, and thirdly, an opportunity to leverage the wide availability of engaging technology.

In California, Governor Schwarzenegger implemented the Digital Textbook Initiative to allow online Open Education Resources (OER) to be used to teach secondary science. The initiative has now expanded to include math, history, language arts, and even physical education. The California Learning Resource Network is a rich marketplace for teachers and curriculum planners to locate California Department of Education approved content, including digital textbooks, online courses, videos, and assessments.

Smart districts already have teams of teachers developing digital 21st century curriculum materials based on the Common Core and combining them with powerful learning approaches such as interdisciplinary studies and project-based learning. The students in these districts should do very well on the new assessments when they are launched. But more importantly they will be college and career ready for the 21st century, possessing skills and knowledge that go way beyond what a standardized test can measure!

Tech Tools Don't Transform Learning - Teachers Do!

A recent article in the Washington Post by Stephanie McCrumman questions the value of the expensive technology being installed in classrooms all over the world, particularly interactive whiteboards. While I agree with a lot of what she is saying, she misses the key point. Unless teaching and learning activities change to more learner-centered experiences, technology will not revolutionize our schools. And this depends on teachers knowing how to change their approach.

In 1975 I had a wonderful technology in my kindergarten class - a machine with a monitor, speaker, keyboard, and early stage interactive disk which the kids would sit at to learn to read. A word would come on the screen and a voice would say "cat" and then the student would type the word "c-a-t" and if successful, they got to see the word, hear "cat," and see a picture of a cat. WOW! For 35 years ago that was pretty amazing technology. Everyone wanted to be on the machine - but after only a few weeks, most found it boring, and the expensive toy was abandoned. I learned to design more engaging activities, like having the kids dictate experience stories into a tape recorder (technology), transcribe them with our parent volunteers, illustrate them, then read them to their peers.

Fast forward to today and the New York City  School of One, in which differentiated learning is the philosophy and approach (this came first) and the technology is the enabler. A similar school in South Carolina, Forest Lake Elementary School created a self-directed curriculum in which students as young as five interact with each other to learn, create, and publish their work in a variety of ways. Teachers are designers of engaging work and facilitators. In both schools there is a tremendous amount and variety of technology, but the curriculum design came first. Wouldn't you love to teach in these schools? Why can't every school adopt this approach in which the students thrive? Vision, strategy, plan, execution...technology is an enabler and essential to today's educational landscape, but the educational vision comes first.