Moonshots in Education

Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom

Esther Wojcicki, Lance Izumi

• Publisher: Pacific Research Institute
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780692379189
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

MOONSHOTS IN EDUCATION: LAUNCHING BLENDED LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOMMoonshots in Education explores digital and online learning in the classroom. It gives several models and examples of schools that are already implementing digital learning and what the success rate has been.

PART I

1

THE ONLINE LEARNING REVOLUTION

BY ESTHER WOJCICKI

Alan November, a leader in education technology, tells a story in his well-known book Who Owns the Learning?: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age about a young boy named Gary who breaks into a computer lab at the beginning of summer vacation. The boy only wanted to use the computer lab to learn programming. He did not steal the computer since it was a heavy desktop; he just wanted to use the computer to work on his project. He wound up completing the entire course in a single week with no interaction or help from his teacher. It was an epiphany for November. He couldn’t believe that this student could complete an entire semester course in a week, but when Gary showed up with the assignments completed and they were all perfect, November changed his mind. He realized that “computer technology may have truly broad implications in the education process.” The key to Gary’s success was that the computer supplied immediate feedback. In addition, he felt he was completely responsible for his work and therefore had the enthusiasm kids do when they play computer games.

These three characteristics of online learning are what makes it so powerful: 1) there is immediate feedback; 2) the student owns the learning; and 3) the teacher does not play the central role. Being in control of one’s learning is key to the effectiveness for students.

This book is about blended learning and project based learning in which online learning is used in conjunction with classroom learning. Blended learning is defined by Michael Horn of the Innosight Institute as “a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path or pace, and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.”

MOONSHOT TOOLS

Visit www.edutopia.org to hear an explanation from Professor Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University on why social and emotional learning is a crucial part of teaching a child.

The opportunity for blended learning is now. It is a moonshot moment. President Barack Obama is seeking $68.8 billion for a federal program that will support educators in creating and using digital-learning resources, including mobile devices. It will also expand collaboration and engagement among parents, teachers, and professional networks. This would be the largest amount allocated to education ever and would truly open the door to remarkable achievements. Another support for the moonshot moment is the Future Ready Schools movement announced by the White House in October 2014 to help districts transition to personalized learning.

This book is called Moonshots in Education for several reasons, but the main reason is that it will take courage for teachers and administrators to change the entire culture of the classroom away from the way education has been delivered for centuries—the lecture method—and toward something truly interactive.

Changing the culture involves first of all trusting students. Historically, students were never trusted; the premise was that they could not be trusted. The school system is built around not trusting and not respecting students. But, as Gary’s story illustrates, adding trust to schools will make learning more effective. Educational studies have confirmed this insight, showing that when students own the learning, they are more engaged and learn more.

While teachers need to trust students to own their learning, teachers need to be trusted too. The lack of trust in our schools starts at the top and ripples downward. In all too many districts today, teachers are scripted every day of the school year—told exactly what to teach and how—because the school boards don’t trust them. Then, to make sure teachers are doing their job, we test students repeatedly. No wonder the students are bored; no wonder we have 50 percent of teachers leaving after five years.

“Education today needs moonshots to allow a major culture change. Changing the culture is the hardest thing to do in any situation—but it desperately needs to be done in our schools.”

The problem is made worse by the fact that we live in a nation of fear. The kidnapping of eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and the kidnapping-murder of twelve-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993 traumatized a generation of parents. People are afraid to let their kids walk to the neighborhood store. We never see kids walking alone to school. Even in towns like Palo Alto, California, where crime is low, parents walk their kids into the classroom every morning. We are afraid to let them leave our side in the grocery store because there might be a predator lurking around every corner. When is the last time you heard an announcement over the loudspeaker that there was a lost child?

The fear has extended to other areas of American life—notably education. We are afraid our kids will not get the right education, so those who have the resources send them to private schools. In the public schools we are afraid the teachers are slacking on the job, and so we test and test. Parents don’t trust administrators or teachers, and in turn administrators and teachers don’t trust students or parents.

We need to break this cycle and work together to raise children, as Hillary Clinton said in her 1996 book It Takes a Village. “Children are not rugged individualists,” Clinton wrote. “They depend on the adults they know and on thousands more who make decisions every day that affect their well-being. All of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, are responsible for deciding whether our children are raised in a nation that doesn’t just espouse family values but values families and children.”

Education today needs moonshots to allow a major culture change. Changing the culture is the hardest thing to do in any situation—but it desperately needs to be done in our schools. More than 70 percent of teachers today are using the traditional lecture model, the way people have been teaching for centuries. But today, they teach directly to the tests because test scores are tied to their evaluations. They may have computers, tablets, or even cell phones in the classroom, but having the devices alone does not change the culture. The worksheets may now be on a computer instead of on paper, but the culture remains the same: the teacher is in charge, the teacher is the director, and the teacher controls the learning.

Many teachers now have electronic whiteboards, but that just reinforces the image of the teacher as the “sage on the stage” and the person in charge of learning. Although many studies have shown that students learn best when they are in charge of their learning, we continue to reinforce the teacher as oracle.

“To transition to the 21st century, schools need to take a risk—they need a moonshot.”

To transition to the 21st century, schools need to take a risk—they need a moonshot. They need to find a way to change the culture of the classroom from a teacher-directed model to a student-directed model. That is the basis of blended learning. The students, with the support of technology, can own and direct at least some of their own education. Students today have a whole library in their pocket on their cell phone. Whatever they want to know, they can look up in a minute. And yet, in many school districts, including some of the largest in the nation, cell phones are banned, the web is censored, and computers and tablets are minimally used. Los Angeles Unified, one of the largest districts in the nation, censors Google and blocks Facebook and YouTube. It distributed iPads to students in a $1 billion plan in 2013, only to take them back weeks later because the students hacked the Facebook site.¹

Google+ is not used in schools because of the fear of violating federal laws such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Google+ would be an excellent tool, permitting circles of students to meet online for homework in a Google Hangout. But it is not encouraged because of these laws. While we are all concerned about protecting our children from predators, we should also be concerned about overprotecting them in ways that inhibit real learning.

Students should be taught to search intelligently and understand the results of their searches. They should be taught how to differentiate between fact and opinion, how to tell who is the creator of a site, how to determine if the information is credible. Students need to know how to navigate the web, how to deal with bullying, how to be intelligent, responsible digital citizens. These are among the skills needed for lifelong learning.

There are several chapters in part I dealing with these topics, and many books and articles have been published on the importance of digital technology in the education process and in preparation for life. We cannot afford to be held back in a world that is changing rapidly.

What will it take for our nation’s schools to teach for the 21st century—to teach students how to navigate the real web, not a censored version? It will take the kind of energy and courage that it took for a moonshot.

2

WHAT IS A MOONSHOT?

BY ESTHER WOJCICKI

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

—John F. Kennedy

The Original Moonshot

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress on “Urgent National Needs.” These needs included the goal of landing a man on the moon and bringing him safely back to earth by decade’s end. Skeptics declared Kennedy’s timeline overly ambitious. Just one month before the president addressed Congress, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human being to ever journey into space. Gagarin had orbited the earth, and now Kennedy was shooting for the moon.

Within a year, two American astronauts traveled into space. The following year, four additional Americans had orbited the earth. Space exploration continued through the 1960s, each mission bringing us one step closer to the goal: landing on the moon.

On July 20, 1969, history was made, as Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. The term “moons...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by James Franco
• Part I
• PART II
• Conclusion
• Endnotes
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• About Pacific Research Institute