New frontiers call for age-old skills

iSchool teacher Christine Jenkins works in a wired classroom that has whiteboards for desks. Technology is surely the new frontier in education. But pioneers will need to bring a lot of tools from home.

It’s both true and not true that computers change everything in a school. It’s true that students have access to far more knowledge in a wired classroom. They have at hand the tools to design cities, make movies and talk face to face with kids on the other side of the world. That changes instruction.

“Whenever you put in the amount of technology that this school has, whenever you get a one-to-one environment where you’ve got a laptop for every kid, you just get a very different situation,” says Curtis Borg, the technology coordinator and chapter leader at the iSchool, a 3-year-old high school in lower Manhattan that is part of the school system’s technocentric Innovation Zone, or iZone. “The teacher is not the same anymore because students can find out anything they want from their device,” Borg says. “You’re more of a guide.”

But it’s also true that there is no imaginable replacement for a teacher in a classroom. The iSchool, in fact, has more than most.

“You need a person in the classroom first and then you need the tools of the 21st century,” Borg says. “You need both. If you don’t have a teacher, it’s like having the tools and having no carpenter. I mean, what’s the point?”

The question of the teacher’s rightful role in a wired classroom has taken on greater urgency as the Department of Education moves ahead with plans to rapidly expand the iZone, now at 81 schools. The DOE intends to add 100 more schools next year and bring the total to 400 the following year — torrid growth for a complex initiative that the DOE embarked on with virtually no public engagement process.

Will teachers be handed new technology without receiving the training or the time to incorporate it effectively in the classroom? Will computers be instructional tools or substitute teachers? Will schools be able to make the kind of changes to programming and instruction that the new technologies require? And what will prevent the DOE from using the iZone to pack even more kids into a classroom?

An innovation showcase

The 325 students at the iSchool spend part of their day learning at their own pace, online, seated at small carrels in a large “quiet commons” room. They use outside content providers like Rosetta Stone or Compass Odyssey, especially for Regents prep. The only teacher is a monitor who checks progress but doesn’t instruct. But for the rest of the day they study in small core classes, “blended” classes using a combination of online content and teacher-directed learning, or in “modules” created by their teachers, which are cross-disciplinary and show off teacher creativity.

On a busy Thursday in late May, students in one iSchool classroom were using Skype to talk to students in the United Kingdom. In Sairina Tsui’s chemistry class, students were using Google Docs to jointly compose movie scripts. Their movies were to include special effects, and they were researching the chemical components of fake blood, smoke, fog and gore. Her aim, Tsui said, was actually “pretty basic.” She wanted students to master core scientific principles, like the law of energy conservation.

The chance to teach these fundamentals using lessons of her own design that take advantage of technology attracted Tsui to the school. “The underlying idea of the class is really interesting and I think that draws students into chemistry, into all science,” she said.

Perils of expansion

The iSchool is a poster child for the iZone, a successful, well-resourced school where students have access to all the tools, but also work closely with each other and their teachers. There is a clear sense of collaboration and an obvious emphasis on good teaching.

“Don’t come here to see a showcase of technology,” warns iSchool Principal Alisa Berger. “You can stick a million dollars worth of technology into a classroom and nothing will change. What skilled teachers do is change what they’re doing by taking advantage of the technology and thus transform instruction.”

But not all the schools in the iZone are as successful. Teachers from some of the other iZone schools say pressure from technology vendors trumps sound instruction.

“It’s all a business. I’m trying to sell you my product. This is business, business, business,” one iZone teacher complained at a recent focus group. Another said only one grade in her school got the technology and the other grades had no support or services. Some reported that computerized lessons felt impersonal and “teachers feel like they’re on a treadmill with the kids.”

There are also concerns about increasing numbers of students per teacher in iZone schools. The “21st-century classroom” can feel like code for teachers working 24/7, accessible to the principal, students and parents around the clock, Borg says. Zina Burton-Myrick, the UFT special representative for the iZone, said educators like the access to lessons that computers provide, and the possibilities for individualized, self-paced learning. But they worry that students will miss out on the social side of classroom discussions as they spend more and more time in front of a screen.

The DOE wants almost $1 billion in capital funding over the next four years to expand the iZone and other technology projects. Much of that money would go to outside vendors at a time when the DOE’s ability to effectively manage contractors has been thrown into doubt by several recent corruption scandals. With funding tight, legislators may be forced to choose between adding seats and wiring classrooms, essentially pitting technology against class size.

Every teacher wants the combination of advanced technology and innovative teaching that is the iZone’s promise. But few believe the DOE can deliver on that promise if it doesn’t value the teacher in every classroom or proceed at a human pace.