The future in now for public schools

By Katherine Wagner

Ten years ago, I asked a colleague for her e-mail address. She reacted as if I had suggested a pet rock play date. "The Internet is a passing fad, it's impersonal," she sneered.

Today, the Internet includes social media, video, mobiles devices and immersive environments. Within this digital world, youth are connecting in unprecedented ways as they work and learn collaboratively -- usually outside of established education institutions.

The biggest challenge facing public schools isn't funding, or declining student enrolment or even test scores. The challenge that will define the success or failure of our public schools is student engagement.

Youth are spending much of their time in an interactive global world separate from the reality their parents inhabit. In response, parents flock to seminars about Internet safety.

Safety is important, but would anyone visit Mexico (or British Columbia's lower mainland given our on going gang war problems) if they only attended a seminar about the hazards of travel in that part of the world?

Parents should try to keep up and this includes joining on-line social networks -- not to spy on their children (according to my kids the term is "creeping") but to understand both the environment and the potential. Like riding a bike, some activities are more easily understood by jumping in and trying them.

Children attending public schools today are " digital natives " -- their world has always included computers, the Internet, mobile devices and video games.

The foundation of engagement is relevance. Schools designed in the 1970s are not relevant to "digital natives." Still, we continue to herd them into buildings barely distinguishable from the institutions their moms and dads attended.

Technology encourages lateral thinking. In contrast, Industrial Age inventions are generally used for their original purpose. A toaster sits on the kitchen counter and is used to toast bread, bagels and maybe the occasional pop tart.

In contrast, consider the cell phone.

The 21st century digital environment is participatory and collaborative. Users take ownership of every invention, building on the platform and often creating previously unimaginable new uses.

Education technology shouldn't be optional. Technology doesn't have to be expensive because schools can tie into the digital world students already inhabit.

The 2009 Horizon Report K-12 describes technology trends and horizons in public education, "In countries like Japan, young people equipped with mobiles often see no reason to own personal computers...It is clear that mobiles are already well on the way to becoming a universal tool for communication of all kinds."

Most secondary school students carry a cell phone and many own smart phones like Blackberries.

Dean Shareski is a digital learning specialist living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He seeks to improve student engagement through connections to their digital world. His edublog ( ideasandthoughts.org ) is a treasure trove of practical ideas.

In sharp contrast to calls for cell phone bans, Shareski encourages educators to " disrupt " their classrooms and tap into the potential of modern mobile devices.

Educators could welcome students to bring their personal digital devices to school. For students who don't have one, the cost to provide a mobile digital device is relatively low -- major retailers sell netbooks for $350. Free and low cost applications further reduce the expense -- for example, there is a 99 cent app available for the iPhone to replace the $150 graphing calculator senior secondary students require for math.

Digital devices open up possibilities for time shifting. Using free services such as podbean.com , teachers can podcast their lectures and students can view them anytime, anyplace. Class time is freed up to directly engage students.

Shareski suggests back channel text messaging during class can encourage students to engage and interact on another level around the subject matter.

Ustream.tv is a free service with potential for classroom use and communication with parents. Shareski points to streaming video for new opportunities to involve parents -- for example watching their child on-line during a presentation to the class.

Teachers can engage students through social media while still respecting student/teacher relationship boundaries.

It seems unlikely this generation of adults will significantly reform education, but the students will. As students grow up and become parents and educators, they will transform our public institutions.

In the meantime, I've taken my own advice and am exploring micro-blogging. I am now on Twitter, come follow me at EducationWatch .