Conspicuous Technology Consumption

I've taught for over 20 years and I think I've nailed down how school districts make money. You will notice several prominent urban districts are once again pleading and demanding money even though they seem to regularly pass bond issues and get more money for facilities that have little to do with learning. I know it's not getting in teachers' pockets.

Several of my peers with similar credentials and years are barely midrange on our districts salary levels although most of us are retiring within months. How does that work out? It is because the district uses a skewed method of comparing teaching fields to "real world" compensation. By that reasoning anyone in humanities is paid less than anyone in the desirable STEM subjects. That may sound favorable, but I'm not really sure even those teachers are being as highly compensated as the usual folks: coaches, administrators and the mid level bureaucrats that school boards deem "necessary" for the districts to achieve accolades.

So where is the money coming from and where does it go? It's no secret that Technology is one of the buzzword topics politicians find so attractive. They like Technology because it's something they can quantify in number and dollars for votes. So politicians sign off on billions of dollars in programs and hardward intended for nebulous STEM programs. Here's where the fun part comes in. Administrators will often be sought by producers of hardware and programs so that those providers can become preferred vendors. Now I'd like to believe no money changes hands, but seriously do you believe that?

Listen to this timeline:
2007-When I first began working my district we had PC's. When I tried to write a grant for Apples I was told by our school and district IT departments that they would not support any maintenance.
2009-A new superintendent takes a job and almost immediately he moves to have EVERY STUDENT from K-12 issues an Apple IPad-that's issuing 50K+ IPads plus every teacher was issued a Power Macbook and IPad. So we had to shift all our programs to a new paradigm. What was ironic is while we made this costly move, when we had problems with our browsers (although we had Apple products we were using Google Apps so we had to use Chrome) we were told to download free virus scans. Suddenly we saw staffing for IT being cut in half. Hmmm
So we dithered about for seven years-kids gradually stopped paying the meagre $35 insurance fee because they could do as much on their phones plus many of the devices ended up broken or hacked thanks to the downloads of movies, games and such which were played during class all the time.
2016-We're using Apple devices, Chrome browsers, Google apps and Microsoft Office. This situation with multiple platforms would continue until.....

.....2018...we were issues new Apple Airs-good thing since my down button had stopped working and my e and r keys had become unidentifiable. The Air's didn't work like the Power Mac's and the procedure to save 19 years of documents, presentations and lesson plans didn't fully work for anyone. So most of us are starting nearly from scratch to rebuild some very complex programs. But that's not all-not content to gift us with a new learning curve for devices, our Fearless Technology Leaders also decided we need to learn an entirely new method of presenting classes with their work. So now we have to learn Canvas from scratch. It is bulky and not at all intuitive. I have nine shells-some for multiple classes and multiple shells for others. There is no easy fix to align them meaning that rather than uploading material once, I will have to do it NINE TIMES. This is not efficient and there was no reason for it since most of us had finally settled into Google Classroom last year.

In this story is the answer to how districts make money so they can pay ridiculously high salaries to star players-coaches, administrators, band directors. They get grants from politicians for the sake of votes, then the administrators cozy up to potential vendors to get sweetheart deals and possibly kickbacks and to perpetuate the "need" for new software, the leads of Technology ALWAYS advocate for changing the software, because that means someone will have to install, introduce, teach and remediate for those programs UNTIL THE NEXT ONE COMES ALONG. So all that money for "Education" never gets to classrooms or Teachers. Instead it creates a new ruling class of highly paid administrators who can retire early on lucrative buy outs while the rest of us are lucky if we see $2000 a month after we retire. Read it through, look at your district--you know I'm right.

Appropriate....

This makes sense. And if you don't understand then you've never had to try to speak over the texting, movie watching and instagramming of today's youths.

This Article Confirms Everything I've Said About Education for the Last 5 Years.

Fortune Magazine published this story and it doesn't strike me as surprising. Over the last five years, since the imposition and increase of technology by our administration and by the country at large, I have seen a reduction in work ethic, retention, writing and reading abilities. We no longer teach cursive so there is no motor memory of writing. The assumption by the powers that be is there will always be a calculator or a computer accessible to do the mundane tasks of basic math or spelling. This erosion of basic skills is resonating through the workforce. Parents who pushed computers at early ages over reading kids bedtime stories are now faced with young adults who do not read for pleasure or enrichment and possibly cannot read on a literate level at all.

Yet what is the drumbeat we hear? TECHnology TECHnology TECHnology....how many vocational programs were gutted to buy into the rarified coursework of Animation or Graphic Design? How many kids fully capable of hands on skills in a variety of trades such as electrical repair, plumbing, auto repair, cosmetology, cabinetry and more have found themselves instead in classes they do not need and do not want? The myth that every kid is going to college is a fallacy. Every kid doesn't belong in college. Many kids go to college only to fail and end up in dead end jobs with a large student loan in tow. This is no way to improve an economy.

I guarantee that in China or Japan or Korea or India or Russia they are not teaching their children to do math using computers. I promise you that these nations also celebrate their complex language structure by requiring students learn to write and communicate. These are skills that are vanishing from a large part of the population. Ironically we are removing the very exercises that would instill deeper retention. Cursive writing is used to help dyslexic students internalize the shapes of letters. Rote memorization of multiplication tables affects a different part of the brain than using a calculator and allows for deeper understanding of the PROCESS of multiplication.

As I have said before, technology is a good servant, but a bad master. Every sci fi movie alludes to this fear of technology actually countermanding the desires of humans. Perhaps we are on the threshold of that becoming reality. When you go to the doctor, the younger ones often spend more time looking at the computer than the patient. For that reason Johns Hopkins has medical students taking art history classes to teach them to OBSERVE THE PATIENT. How many medical mistakes have occurred because of the failure to note the reaction of the patient over the steps of protocol?
We have young mothers sitting at playgrounds enthralled with Angry Birds while their children are out of control. We have students watching movies during class. What is more the overlay of social media on a population that has not been taught basic social skills has led to most of the angst we've witnesses in society over the last few years. Can you name one incident-political, social, legal or economic-that wasn't in some way by social media?

It's time to stop this nonsense. I'm not saying to forbid media, but it's time to stop just giving in to trends. Frankly I think Apple and Google and Facebook and all the other manufacturers and websites share the blame for the sick dissolution of social discourse. And make no mistake, for all you liberals out there, none of these companies do it for any other reason beyond making a buck. So while hipsters walk around talking on IPhones about how high their student loans are and complaining about how they don't have any money, step back and think about all the things we have now that are branded and promoted and therefore deemed popular. Is Starbucks really better than a cup of coffee you make yourself? 

Such weakminded behavior leads to some of the mob/gang/group atrocities we've witnessed online. How are the SAE's any different than wilding mobs attacking innocent people at a midwestern fair? How desperate are these kids to find some magic pill that can insure their success the way Mommy and Daddy did when they were in public school? While both are vile and nasty and racist and violent, this doesn't spring full born from their own heads. Have you listened to the lyrics of popular music? I ban those songs in my classroom and yet I have had heated discussions with students who think the n-word is allowed simply because they themselves are black. I think bad, rude, insensitive language goes across the boards. You cannot permit some people to use the words with impunity and then get outraged when someone uses them. NOBODY SHOULD BE USING THESE WORDS. Stop trying to be hip and cool by joining into activities that are mean, dangerous and simply unnecessary. And the kids on the bus using the n-word in Oklahoma are every much as vile as the gangs who assault innocent people on the street for the sake of "fun." 

By the way, lest you think I am out of touch, much of this is fueled by things my own kids-ranging from 25 to 30-have told me about their peers. Every week it's a new complaint about coworkers that are hunted down by bill collectors or people who run up credit card bills at restaurants leaving friends to cover the bill. These dime a day millionaires have bought into the Oprahization of America believing that their mere existence qualifies them for the best of everything. Nobody deserves the best of everything, especially if they can't pay for it. 

Here's the column and link. Read it. Share it. This is important.

Millenial Fail

Surprised? So were the researchers who tested and compared workers in 23 countries.

We hear about the superior tech savvy of people born after 1980 so often that we tend to assume it must be true. But is it?

Researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) expected it to be when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries.

When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a newreport, that Millennials in the U.S. fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and — hold on to your hat — a category called “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”

Not only do Gen Y Americans lag far behind their overseas peers by every measure, but they even score lower than other age groups of Americans.

Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the U.S. ranked dead last.

Okay, but what about making smart use of technology, where Millennials are said to shine? Again, America scored at the bottom of the heap, in a four-way tie for last place with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland.

Even the best-educated Millennials stateside couldn’t compete with their counterparts in Japan, Finland, South Korea, Belgium, Sweden, or elsewhere. With a master’s degree, for example, Americans scored higher in numeracy than peers in just three countries: Ireland, Poland, and Spain. Altogether, the top U.S. Gen Yers, in the 90thpercentile, “scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries,” the report notes, “and only scored higher than their peers in Spain.”

“We really thought [U.S.] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the U.S. or to the same age group in other countries,” says Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher who worked on the study. “But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”

What does that mean for U.S. employers hiring people born since 1980? Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree. True, U.S. Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma (albeit less well than college grads in most other countries).

“But a degree may not be enough,” Goodman says, to prove that someone is adept with basic English, can do what she calls “workaday math,” or has the ability to use technology in a job. Curious about how the PIAAC measures those skills, or how you’d score yourself? Check out a few sample math questions, or take the whole test.

Validating Mediocrity

My district has begun a new initiative. Rather than penalizing students for using phones in class, we will now celebrate them. We are supposed to allow phones, cameras, Ipads, Ipods, laptops and all other kinds of gizmos, gadgets and gewgaws to be accessed for the concept of what is labeled as "deeper understanding." In talking to teachers in other districts, this initiative seems just as trendy as Whole Language was back in the day. In short, someone has attended a seminar which has promised to solve all problems and insure good test scores. The words a teacher fears most is "The Board has been to a seminar." It's a precursor for all kinds of mischief under the guise of improvement.

Don't get me wrong. I like technology. I have a smart phone, a laptop and courtesy of a grant, all sorts of scanners, printers, cameras and digital devices. I understand that the kids in school today are not like those even five years ago. They have been steeped in the stew of digitalism from birth. And that's not a bad thing. But it is also a type of placating act to simply throw up one's hands and let them rule the school with their electronic things.

What disturbs me the most is the varying messages we get from administration. Last year there was a fine for having a cell phone. I got griped at for letting my AP students listen to music on the Ipods while they worked on independent projects. We had filters that limited access to sites like Facebook and Sodahead. In theory, the students will only access the internet via a network for them. But almost anyone with a 4G phone can subvert that. So what's the point? In the same manner when this was introduced teachers were told IN WRITING that "teachers should not be overly concerned with monitoring students' internet activity." Today we were told that we need to make sure all students are on task. Now I ask you, with thirty plus kids and their devices in class, what do you think the odds are that the average teacher is going to be able to catch all kids on task?

Another troubling aspect to this is something I observed from a film created by middle school kids in our district and shown across the district as an example of prime work. In that film, students essentially said they should be allowed to do what they want to do. In one vignette a question was asked "What were the causes of the civil war?" All the students had different ideas from different sources. That's fine, I am a fan of research. But what was not fine was the following statement "All of our opinions are valid." Really? So if I said the civil war was started by people who liked dogs better than cats, that would be equally valid? The implication is that there is no right or wrong and I take issue with that. I think in this world there are some things that are either right or wrong. Murder, right or wrong? Wrong of course. This seems to be just more of the celebration of esteem over content and that is what is wrong with our schools and our graduates today.

My future son in law read a recent article, which he's supposed to send me, that discusses how video games now are different than those even five years ago. It seems that games like "Myst" where there are no cheats, no shortcuts and no freebies which are pure mental problemsolving are gone. Today's games give hints, cheats are prevalent and the problemsolving element has gone down greatly. One man who wrote code for game systems had his son ask for Nintendo Connect. The father asked why and the son said he wanted to play games with his friends. This was a preteen kid, the ripe age for video games of all kinds. So the father said that if the son could beat one of his old Nintendo games, he would get him the system. The son has worked on it for three months and has not even leveled up one level. What does this say about the soft bigotry of making things easier and academic achievement? What does this say about our future?

The Tyranny of Techies

I would be the first to admit that much of what our culture has become is because of our advanced technology. But I am beginning to think that the love of technology just for the sake of technology is supplanting the love of money as the root of all evil. There are many of us who have computers, do email, surf the web, and that is all we do. There are others who are far more invested in not only using technology but in pressing its use, even when unnecessary, on other applications. Many school districts are actively requiring that teachers learn an entire slate of computer applications. Some of these such as email and gradebooks are necessary. Others are not. There are some applications that a classroom teacher will never use. And yet because it is required, proficiency is also expected. This is also going on in our businesses and communities. Many seniors are getting shut out of community access because they don't know how to use computers and let's face it, after a certain age, many just don't want to learn. This is also going on in industry. When you have a boss who demands reports that are so lengthy, so complex that they get in the way of doing the job, is that use of technology really improving the bottom line? People who don't actually have to do those tedious reports, but just command that they be done, have no idea the amount of work involved because when they have such reports, they hand it over to their subordinates or secretaries. I can see knowing certain programs if you are an engineer or an accountant, but if you are in customer service or sales, the constant quest to create technological easter eggs for an increasingly unnecessary function eats up time that would be more efficiently done on the job. I think this comes from the college grads of the 1980's who majored in computer science and thought computers would solve all our problems. Well its twenty five years down the road and we really don't have a paperless society because we still have to print everything out-even the powerpoints we present at meetings. Technology is a wonderful servant but a cruel master. Ask anyone who has an insufferable IT manager or a hinky connection to their server. And we have become so reliant on it that we cannot function without it. We know more about network interface than we know how to discuss problems face to face with our co-workers. Sorry, but this smacks more of Brave New World than of the Bright Future we were promised. So back off the cell phone, power down the PC, light an old school fire in the fireplace and have a conversation for a change.