16 Years of T+L: Looking Back and Wishing Forward
September 2008, Volume 1, Issue 3
16 Years of T+L: Looking Back and Wishing Forward
by Ann Lee Flynn, Ed.D., Director, Education Technology, National School Boards Association
Oh, the places you'll go! There is learning to be done!
For educators, “back to school” is a marker event, offering a September opportunity to reflect over the past year’s accomplishments and create "New Year’s resolutions." NSBA’s annual T+L conference has served that purpose for me for the past 16 years. While I share the same frustrations as many of my colleagues in the ed tech community that we have not yet transformed education, a quick journey down memory lane helps put our accomplishments in perspective.
Consider: My first T+L conference pre-dated common public access to the Internet, mention of the word “Amazon” conjured up visions of a river in South America, and today’s 684 million annual visitors to Wikipedia had to turn to other sources for their answers. When you think about it, U.S. educators really have made great strides blending technology and learning.
Memory Lane
At my first T+L in 1992, integrated learning systems, stand-alone software, and VHS tapes and laser discs were among the highlights on the show floor. At that point, the very idea of a student using a computer generated excitement! Over the next several years, the need to connect classrooms within a building brought an increased focus to wiring decisions and hardware. Those issues only escalated with the arrival of the Internet and such national movements as NetDay and the passage of E-Rate to provide funding. The “dotcoms” brought unparalleled solutions and excitement to T+L in 1998-2000, but by 2002, many of them had disappeared. The tech bubble burst!
Once much of the infrastructure was in place, the evolutionary journey of education technology took a different turn. Suddenly, many more questions were raised about how the hardware, software, and Internet were being used to impact student achievement rather than merely discussing the need to acquire more of those items. About the same time, the passage of No Child Left Behind caused districts to take a new look at their student data. Some realized that while they had a great overall program, perhaps they were not serving all student groups as effectively as their “averages” had suggested. In the following years, almost any discussion of technology immediately turned to “data driven decision-making”. In reality, that laser–like focus on student performance was a good thing; on the other hand, after collecting and assessing the data, many educators struggled to determine the next steps to help those students. The heightened concern about not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) caused some school leaders and teachers to abandon their creative uses of technology and gave others a convenient excuse to continue their avoidance of it.
And then slowly, a new idea began to take root. The concept of using the knowledge gained from the data analysis, blended with an increased awareness of how various technology resources could assist teachers in delivering personalized instruction to meet each child’s needs, contributed to a new period of industry innovation. In addition, research on the growing number of high school drop-outs suggested many students left traditional education because their experiences in class were irrelevant and they were bored.
As educators currently seek to deliver differentiated instruction, and re-engage students, today’s technology tools and teaching strategies offer an amazing set of options. Educators are reaching this generation of students through interactive white boards, audience response systems, games and simulations, digital media projects, and virtual classes. Project-based learning is experiencing a resurgence of interest and provides educators with a way to incorporate real-world connections and the latest technologies to encourage creativity and the development of 21st century skills like critical thinking and collaboration.
Wishing Forward
With each step of this evolutionary journey, NSBA’s Technology Leadership Network and T+L, its annual technology and learning conference, have been there to help school leaders and board members chart a course through these rapidly changing times. After a look in the rear view mirror, you may wonder what my “New Year’s Resolutions” might be going forward. Well, here they are:
- I hope that all children, regardless of their location – from Indian reservations or small communities in Hawaii to the Mississippi River Delta or rural Appalachia – have teachers who are willing to use today’s tools to show them a world they have not experienced and to spark their imaginations.
- I hope school leaders and board members recognize the important role they play in establishing a 21st century vision for learning and creating a culture of innovation supported at both the building and district levels.
- I hope education vendors continue to refine their current products, explore alternatives, and develop new solutions that meet the changing needs of teachers, administrators, and students.
- I hope today’s technologies can increasingly be used to more effectively engage parents in their children’s education and inform citizens about the important role public schools play in their local communities.
- And finally, I hope a new presidential administration will acknowledge and fund technology innovation in our schools – and all that entails – to ensure that America’s students have the competitive edge they need to be effective players in the global marketplace that is their future.
My “New Year’s Resolutions” helped inspire the design of the 2008 T+L Conference content for Seattle. Take a look at this year’s program if you haven’t already, www.nsba.org/T+L. From futurist Paul Saffo, the inspiring Joe Caruso, or 21st century education visionary David Warlick, the T+L General Sessions will help you see the “big picture”. Roll up your sleeves and get down to details in the dozens of workshops, roundtable discussions, and mini-academies that address specific challenges. And don’t forget to take a look at the post-conference field trips to tour the Boeing plant, see a successful one-to-one academy in the Kent School District, or embrace financial literacy as an essential 21st century skill through a firsthand look at Junior Achievement’s BizTown and Finance Park facilities. I hope you can join me at T+L if you share my “wish list” for the future!
Ann Flynn
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