21stcenturyed.com

A survey of K-12 educators’ was recently released by edWeb.net, MCH and MMS Education. The stated goal was:

“To benchmark attitudes, perceptions and utilization of social networking websites and content-sharing tools by teachers, principals and school librarians.” (p. 2)

The starting population was huge – well over 60,000 teacher, principals and library/media specialists. Unfortunately the response rate was really low – 1.55% (I’ll never again complain when I get 20%). I also wonder (since this information is not provided) whether K-6 was over-represented as such a high number of female respondents might indicate.

Much of the findings are what you might expect – the teachers see that this technology is valuable and that their students are using it. They feel overwhelmed and a bit behind the curve on it all. They want more training on these types of technologies.

One finding of the study jumped out at me. While 85% of the respondents have joined a social networking site joined Facebook, 76% of those educators state that their usage is “seldom or never”. So why are these folks signing up and seldom (or never) returning? Do they not understand the premise of a “social network”? Do they simply feel overwhelmed by the tools themselves? Or do they simply lack the time to spend in these activities?

Do you belong to a site that you are not participating in? If so, why aren’t you showing up to add to the discussion?

I was just reading the selected national findings of the recent Speak Up research project by Project Tomorrow which collects feedback from students, parents and teachers and uses that information to spark conversation and look for trends in education.
Early in the report there is a massive disconnect identified: 56% of school principals say their schools are doing a good job of preparing their students for the jobs of the future. Only one-third of the students themselves share this view…and even fewer parents.
I can’t help but think that this is not the only disconnect out there. I know that as a society we have turned changed education from the search for knowledge to the preparation to be a “contributing member of society” and that this translates into “job preparation”. But isn’t there more to education? Shouldn’t there be more than that? What about these disconnects?

• My school thinks it’s a safe place, but I’m scared to death to get off the bus
• I’m taking history because I have to…but I could really care less
• I just want to dance/sing/act/write/create, but all I get to do is listen and watch
• I need 70 minutes to learn this topic..but the bell rings after 45 minutes
• I’m not “bad”…I just can’t possibly sit still in one place all day
• They think I can read, but I can’t

When was the last time your school did a simple survey?
When was the last time your principal talked to a focus group of just failing kids…not to threaten them with being held back, but to find out how she could help them succeed?

Project Tomorrow is asking your students if you’re meeting their needs…are you?