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Posted by:
Michael Suntag
District admin/coordinator
Middletown, CT
Topic:
The Great Equalizer
Message:
It seems to me that standards are simply a community's consensus on what a student should know and be able to demonstrate in a given discipline before they graduate. The danger of national standards and even some state standards has been that it sets a high bar for all students regardless of the resources to which they have access and the diverse backgrounds that they bring to school. As an educator in an urban district for many years, I've had the direct experience of attempting to support students to reach high bar standards without the proper resources and within life circumstances that would derail the most ardent student.
Technology equalizes the field. A child in a poor urban setting can have the same access to information as a child in a wealthy suburb. A child who has never traveled beyond their neighborhood can simulate the same experiences as children who have traveled widely. Children who have problems reading and comprehending can follow individualized plans of instruction designed by teachers who put their learning units on-line and who provide content in multi-dimensional ways that are possible with today's technology.
The digital divide disappears when a child turns on his/her computer and taps into the world's digitized knowledge. A creative teacher can use technology to promote research skills that teach a student how to find and use information regarding anything that sparks the child's curiosity. The child can do the work, the teacher can guide and design the work. We are experimenting with digital classrooms in our system, where teachers are trained to create digital learning units on-line. The teacher dialogues with the students to assess their prior knowledge of a subject, sends them to their desktops to research a topic within teacher embedded web sites, brings them together to discuss what they have found and to come to consensus within large or small groups on the essential ingredients of their research. They are then asked to produce something with their findings to indicate that they can apply the knowledge that they have constructed for themselves.
These are high order thinking skills that can help students meet any high-bar standards. The learning units integrate reading skills, writing skills and performance assessment. They can more easily cross content areas to be multi-disciplinary. Most importantly, when a student completes a project and produces a product that can be shared with his colleagues, that student is much more likely to have internalized the essential understandings related to the standards.
It is too early to tell if students in such environments will achieve at a higher level than students in other learning environments. We have been at this only for one full year. However, my instincts as a veteran educator and what I have seen as I observe these teachers and students have convinced me that we are on the right track.
Michael Suntag
Consultant for Educational Technology/Grants Management
State of Connecticut Dept. of Education
Regional Vocational-Technical Schools
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