Not So Distant Future

It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writing, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it.
- William Bernbach

A lengthy debate has been going on at Clay Burell’s blog regarding the weight and value of writing in Language Arts education, the effects of technology, and the importance of other aspects of communication like verbal or visual.

I’ve been thinking about this in reference to the new Pew Internet Poll regarding student writing and technology ‘diversions’ like texting, etc.

In the Pew study, teens reported that:

“They are motivated to write when they can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present them with interesting curricula and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well.”

Those findings are what we might expect–that when they are challenged, passionate, and have an audience, they feel more motivated to write well.   But they seem to understand that the technology cannot “give” them the ideas they need to communicate:

“Many teens feel that while technology can help them compose, edit and present their ideas, it cannot improve the quality of the ideas themselves.”

And the survey shows that teens are doing all sorts of writing–from creating powerpoint presentations(73%) to writing journals(both personal or for school) (65%).

Also interestingly, some students find that computers help them write better(witness the discussions on Clay’s blog) and some think they help them write less well:

“In comparison, three in ten teens who write on a computer for non-school purposes at least occasionally feel that computers help them do better writing—and twice as many (63%) feel that computers make no difference in their writing quality. A small minority of teens feel thatwriting on a computer makes them write less than they would otherwise (12% feel this way) or that they write more poorly as a result (6%).”

After looking at this survey, and thinking about the discussion on Clay’s blog, it’s no wonder there is a difference of opinion.  The end users themselves have a difference of opinion!

Another interesting finding of the survey which is important for those of us having students write blogs:

“Teen bloggers in particular engage in a wide range of writing outside of school. Bloggers are significantly more likely than non-bloggers to do short writing, journal writing, creative writing, write music or lyrics and write letters or notes to their friends.”

Personally I wonder if blogging provides the sense to students of an audience who is interested in their writing, which motivates them to engage in more writing of more kinds.  And that the sense of writing for an audience actually serves to improve them as writers, because they are making that transformation to “communicators”?

Which brings me back to the quote at the beginning of this post–that a communicator is concerned with what the reader gets from the writer(or the visual or the oral presentation).  

Our students need to be skilled communicators, whether they are communicating visually, orally, or in writing–they need to have mastered the craft well enough that they can focus on the reader/audience.  They need to have enough encounters with communicating that they become much more aware of audience.   And they need to have these encounters in a variety of ways.

One of the Pew findings, which wasn’t that surprising, is that most in school writing is done primarily in English classes, and that the writing done in other classes mainly consists of short paragraphs.   If we want students to grasp the finer points of communicating–if we want them to have finesse as communicators, then whether they are writing, speaking, Skyping, or presenting a visual, they need to practice enough across the curriculum that they internalize the skills they need.

Do we need to emphasize one skill over another?  Or do we need to do a better job of reaching across the curriculum to help students become more able to reach their audiences, no matter the subject, no matter the topic, and no matter the means of presentation?

             And a complete sidenote, but important to librarians:   One thing the Pew study discovered is that many teens are connecting and writing via libraries–60% use it from the library and 76% from school;  also the usage in libraries varies by socio-economic group (making libraries a real democratizing force for these students).

We haven’t celebrated Blogging Friday in awhile, so today I want to highlight two new bloggers in our district!

Margie Brown, one of our elementary tech coordinators, has started a new blog, K5Tech, which is already impressive.  She’s already been sharing projects going on in our district at the elementary level, and it’s fascinating to see what our younger students are learning already.

Our business and career teacher and a very enthused member of our Vision committee, Vicky Abney, is leaving for Bejing this week, and has started a blog , WHSCareerTech, to share her trip with her students and the staff.  We helped her set up a flickr feed so she can post pictures of her travels, as well. 

I’m excited to see the power of blogs to connect those of us in the same district.   This process will allow all of us to have a window inside of their programs, which will inform all of our teaching.

Happy blogging!

The vision committee I’m a part of just shared a presentation with our faculty based on our site visits to California, about the ideas we’re bringing back to our campus.

It brought back to me the excitement of the trip, the excitement of feeling like a education professional, and the excitement of believing that so many of us on our campus have so many untapped passions and abilities.   At the end of the presentation, we ask:

I have to admit, and this isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this, that the one thing I am over-the-top excited about is thinking about opportunities for cross-curricular connections that would take our curriculum to a new level and engage students in a whole new way where ideas relate to one another, not just in one great class, but all day long.   I believe the library can play a large role in that, and I also feel it’s the way we all learn in “real” life.

I don’t exactly know what I am envisioning or looking for in terms of “school” yet, but I know what it feels like–it feels dynamic, it feels like there is a “buzz” when you walk in the door of the school because something exciting is happening there,  it feels like students and teachers alike are enthused to be there, it feels like people listen to and support one another, it feels like we work as a team.

I’ve always thought it would be exciting to work at a dotcom company–maybe it used to be my secret ambition, and I think the reason was that “buzz” and excitement that you sense in those environments….you can feel the innovation oozing from the walls and in the corridors.

   And I’d also like the library to have that “buzz”–(which some days it does)–of students and teachers in an innovative physical space, working together, talking, reading, creating, and sharing their excitement about learning.  

I see the infusion of technology as a big part of that for our students, because it is a natural part of their lives, and feeling innovative is exciting to them, and excitement creates enthusiasm for learning.

So what I come to work every day for is that enthusiasm for learning–I see my job as trying to support that in the classroom as much as I can.  

    I also want teachers to use the library as “their” space and not see it as “my space,” (pardon the pun), and to see it as a real resource for learning, reading, meeting, conferencing, etc.  I want our new facility design and policies to reflect that.

That’s my “vision.”   What’s yours?

Maybe because I’m working on the new plans for the library, as well as rereading Daniel Pink’s book Whole New Mind, plus having recently visited High Tech High, I’ve been obsessing a little bit lately over the idea of the role of design and creativity in schools, and pondering about what we could do better.

 design as ’shrimp sushi’

Not just design in the sense of a building, but in the sense of how we could teach elements of better design for student projects, and create more cross curricular opportunities for using art/music/design, etc., that would tap into the talents of so many of our students.  I’m just starting to think about all this as a way to bring information use, technology, and creativity together in classrooms and the library and using technology in a more “transformative” way(which Ian Jukes talks about).

(We do have a few projects like the Vietnam Wall photostories our English 3AP classes did earlier this year, where we talked to students about the visual design and music and how it should integrate into the feel of the project.)  But I’m wondering what other connections we can make to make students more aware of design elements across the curriculum?

I’ve also been thinking about how to apply these design and creativity ideas to a library because when you enter a space that is well designed and innovative, it seems like it creates such a positive energy in general.

Related to all this, I ran across a fascinating short talk(15 min.)about creativity and education from Sir Ken Robinson, and posted it on the Vision committee blog.   If you have a few minutes, I’d highly recommend it.

photo credit: (I went to flickr.com looking for photos to illustrate my post and ran across the clever sushi illustration by Japanese designer Kenya Hara, referenced here:  http://iridesco.com/onetwo/2007/03/04/design-of-design/  and http://www.flickr.com/photos/phluke/409555446/ )