Why Technology Can't Fix Education | Mary Jo Madda | TEDxChicago
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, an education journalist, critiques the Silicon Valley narrative that technology alone can revolutionize education. She shares experiences, including a failed experiment where students used devices 90% of the time, leading to poor academic outcomes. Contrasting this, she highlights successful integration of tech in the classroom, emphasizing the crucial role of teachers. The speaker advocates for a balanced approach, combining technology with human interaction, to create optimal learning environments.
Takeaways
- 🍎 The speaker compares the appearance of an apple to the perception of the American public education system, suggesting that appearances can be deceiving when it comes to educational outcomes.
- 📊 American students' performance is evaluated against 71 other countries, indicating a global context for educational standards and achievements.
- 📰 Journalists often focus on teachers as the root cause for educational shortcomings, with headlines like 'rotten apples' and 'crackdown on lazy teachers'.
- 👩🏫 The speaker's personal experience as a math and science teacher highlights the existence of excellent teaching practices that are not always recognized.
- 💡 A shift in narrative is observed in Silicon Valley, where technology is seen as the solution to educational challenges, with a belief in the potential of AI and digital tools.
- 🏫 The case of USC hybrid high school in Southern California exemplifies the challenges of implementing technology-heavy educational models, with initial outcomes showing more credit deficiencies among students.
- 📱 The Los Angeles Unified School District's iPad initiative is cited as a cautionary tale, where a lack of teacher input and professional development led to its failure.
- 💼 The speaker's move to Google reflects a personal belief in technology's potential, but also a recognition that it is not a panacea for all educational issues.
- 👨🏫 The importance of the teacher factor is emphasized, with teachers being key in asking critical questions and building relationships that technology cannot replicate.
- 🎓 A successful turnaround at the USC hybrid high school is attributed to increased teacher involvement and financial support for educational tools, leading to a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate.
- ❓ The speaker concludes with a call to action, prompting the audience to consider how to best balance technology and human interaction in educational settings.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the speaker's talk?
-The main theme of the speaker's talk is the relationship between technology and education, specifically questioning whether technology can solve all the problems in the education system.
Why did the speaker choose to focus on Silicon Valley for her education journalism?
-The speaker chose to focus on Silicon Valley because it presented a new narrative where technology was seen as the solution to all educational problems, which she wanted to explore.
What was the outcome of the USC hybrid high college prep experiment mentioned in the script?
-By the end of the freshman year, 50 percent of the incoming freshman class at USC hybrid high college prep was credit deficient, meaning they were worse off than when they started.
What was the issue with the iPad initiative by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)?
-The issue with LAUSD's iPad initiative was that it lacked teacher input in decision-making and provided minimal professional development for teachers on how to incorporate devices into the classroom.
How did Ricardo Elizalde, a public school teacher, use technology to help his students?
-Ricardo Elizalde used technology by creating a student project that involved Macs and iMovie to help his students create animated digital shorts, which they dubbed with the English they had learned, boosting their confidence.
What changes were made at the charter school system in Los Angeles that improved the students' performance?
-The charter school system brought in a new leader from Chicago who emphasized more consistent teacher-student interaction in the classroom and provided each teacher with $3,000 to spend on technology or software of their choice.
What was the final outcome for the first freshman class at the charter school system after the changes were implemented?
-After the changes, 100% of the first freshman class graduated and were accepted into four-year colleges and universities.
What was the speaker's observation about the job posting for an executive director of personalized learning in Chicago Public Schools?
-The speaker noted that while over a thousand positions were eliminated from Chicago Public Schools, a high-paying position for an executive director of personalized learning was posted, which was to bring technology into the system.
What is the 'triangular relationship' the speaker supports in education?
-The 'triangular relationship' the speaker supports involves the student, the technology, and the teacher, where all three work together for effective learning.
What is the crucial question the speaker wants the audience to consider?
-The speaker wants the audience to consider how to balance the utility of technology with the beauty of human nature to create the best learning environments for students.
Outlines
🍎 The Apple of Education: Technology's Role in Learning
The speaker begins by using an apple as a metaphor for the American education system, highlighting the discrepancy between its promising appearance and the actual performance of students on a global scale. Journalists often blame teachers for this performance, but the speaker, a former math and science teacher, argues that there are many great teachers who don't get the recognition they deserve. The speaker then shares their journey into education journalism, particularly focusing on Silicon Valley's belief that technology will revolutionize education. They question this narrative by recounting their experiences and investigations into the impact of technology in education, such as the USC hybrid high college prep program, where students spent most of their day on devices but ended up performing worse than when they started. The speaker also discusses the failed iPad initiative by LAUSD, which spent a billion dollars on providing iPads to students without significant teacher input or training, leading to its eventual failure.
💼 The Power of Teachers: Beyond Technology
The speaker introduces Ricardo Elizalde, a public school teacher who teaches English to non-native speakers, as an example of the importance of teachers in education. Ricardo noticed a lack of confidence in one of his students, which led him to create a project using Macs and iMovie. This project allowed students to create animated digital shorts and dub them with English, boosting their confidence and allowing them to demonstrate their learning to their families. The speaker then returns to the USC hybrid high story, noting that the school system brought in a new leader from Chicago who recognized the need for more teacher-student interaction and provided teachers with funding to integrate technology into their classrooms effectively. This change led to the entire freshman class graduating and being accepted into four-year colleges. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the teacher factor in education, suggesting that while technology can be a tool, it is the teachers who ask the best questions and build relationships that technology cannot replicate.
🌐 Balancing Tech and Humanity in Education
In the final paragraph, the speaker addresses the audience directly, acknowledging the unique challenges faced by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and drawing attention to a 2016 report that highlighted the elimination of over a thousand positions, including teaching roles, while simultaneously advertising for a high-paying position focused on integrating technology into the system. The speaker argues for a triangular relationship in education, where the student, technology, and teacher all work together. They advocate for a balanced approach that leverages the benefits of technology while preserving the irreplaceable human element of teaching. The speaker concludes by posing a crucial question: how can we collectively determine the best learning environments that balance technology with the importance of human interaction and relationships in education? They emphasize the sacred nature of the bond between teachers and students, which should not be replaced by technology.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Technology
💡Teachers
💡Student-Teacher Relationship
💡Personalized Learning
💡iPad Initiative
💡Hybrid High
💡Educational Outcomes
💡Silicon Valley Narrative
💡Professional Development
💡Artificial Intelligence in Education
Highlights
The American public education system is often criticized for its performance compared to other countries.
Journalists often focus on teachers as the reason for poor educational performance.
The speaker's personal experience as a teacher highlights the existence of incredible teaching examples that are not widely recognized.
Silicon Valley's narrative suggests that technology can solve all educational problems.
The speaker's journey as an education journalist in Silicon Valley to explore the role of technology in education.
USC hybrid high's experiment with technology in education, where students spent 90% of the day on devices.
50% of USC hybrid high's freshman class ended the year credit deficient.
LAUSD's failed iPad initiative, which allocated a billion dollars for iPads but lacked teacher input and professional development.
The importance of considering the teacher factor in educational technology implementations.
Ricardo Elizalde's innovative use of technology to help a non-native English speaker build confidence.
The success of USC hybrid high after adjusting their approach to include more teacher-student interaction.
100% graduation and college acceptance rate for the first freshman class at USC hybrid high after implementing changes.
Chicago Public Schools eliminated over a thousand positions, including teaching roles, while hiring for a high-paying tech role.
The potential issues with a classroom model that relies solely on technology without teacher involvement.
The triangular relationship model that includes the student, technology, and teacher for effective learning environments.
The sacred relationship between teachers and students and the importance of not replacing it with technology.
Transcripts
[Applause]
[Music]
hello Chicago this is an apple some of
you may look at it and think that
reminds me of the American public
education system or any education system
for that matter yet despite how red and
juicy and plump it is it doesn't
necessarily correlate with the realities
of how American students are performing
when you look at them and their
performances compared with seventy-one
other countries worth of students across
the world
journalists are the first ones to jump
on this and try to figure out exactly
what the reason is for this sort of
performance and typically they focus on
teachers here are some examples rotten
apples crackdown on lazy teachers what
the heck is going on in these schools I
can tell you from firsthand experience
because I was a sixth and seventh grade
math and science teacher at one point
that there are some incredible examples
of teaching out there they just don't
always make it to the forefront and so
about four and a half years ago I
decided to put my money where my mouth
is figuratively and join the education
journalism world but I chose to move
somewhere very in particular the Silicon
Valley whoo where all of a sudden an
entirely new narrative was brought to my
attention
technology is going to solve all of our
problems
technology can fix education the Silicon
Valley billionaires remake schools
artificial intelligence is going to do
everything we need it to do
well when I first heard that I started
to feel like Morgan Freeman and this
meme which is one of my favorite memes
and you'd be surprised how many
powerpoints I put this in in my career
including when I had powerpoints in my
classroom and you know I thought to
myself what is this pressure all of a
sudden I feel to join this narrative to
write about how incredible technology is
for our students so over the next 4 and
1/2 years of being an education
journalist I would endeavor to try to
answer this question can technology
really solve all of our problems
I'm gonna take you back to one of the
most popular article so I ever wrote for
the education technology journalism
organization I used to work for ED Serge
it was about a charter system down in
Southern California USC hybrid high
college prep the University of Southern
California has a large School of
Education and they wanted to run a bit
of an experiment they decided that at
this new charter school they were going
to put students on devices for 90
percent of the day the teacher was there
but sort of put to the side and they had
a lot to work with because a number of
these students were coming in without
proficiency in math science or language
arts so there was a lot riding on this
and yet by the end of freshman year
50 percent of that incoming freshman
class was credit deficient meaning that
they were worse than when they had first
come in it's almost as if the Charter
system took a page out of
the book that Los Angeles Unified School
District wrote who around the same time
had decided to reallocate a billion
dollars in funding from the space in
their budget that was supposed to go to
remaking decrepit buildings in the
district to iPads for all every single
student in the district received an iPad
but there was a bit of an issue with
this very little teacher input went into
this decision making and
very little professional development was
provided to the teachers to help them
understand how to incorporate the
devices into the classroom now some of
you may have read about this and if you
have then apologize for bringing up
those negative memories once again but
approximately two years ago the
superintendent of LAUSD John Deasy
actually resigned and a major reason for
that was because of the ultimate failure
that the iPad initiative had been oh
don't get me wrong I actually recently
joined Google so I theoretically like
technology but I don't think it's the
main thing that we need to fix all of
our problems I think it can be a tool
but here's the thing I saw lacking and a
lot of the stories that I read about
that I wrote that he interviewed people
on and that was the teacher factor
because oftentimes teachers are the ones
that ask the best questions around tools
that are used in the classroom around
how a student is feeling they have those
relationships that a piece of technology
can't simulate
for example Ricardo elizalde is probably
one of the best teachers I've ever met
in my entire life he is a public school
teacher and he spends his life teaching
non-native speakers English
now students in his class even when they
become proficient sometimes lack
something in particular he noticed this
with one of his particular Honduran
students who was doing very well but
when she went home wasn't really able to
speak with her mother because she lacked
one crucial thing
confidence now Ricardo being the
resourceful and innovative teacher that
he is decided I think there's a way that
I can incorporate technology into the
scenario to help her out so he created a
student project that brought in Macs and
iMovie and wrote this story actually for
us after the whole thing happened the
students created animated digital shorts
over which they dubbed with the English
that they had learned and the beautiful
thing about it was that they were able
to take those projects back home and
demonstrate to their families just how
much they had learned
and I'm going to take you back to hybrid
high because actually that story doesn't
end as bad as you might think it did
I'll be honest with you we the the
charter school system did pluck a new
leader actually from Chicago and dragged
him out to Los Angeles but the second
year the charter school system was
around thank God he was there because he
realized that the big missing element in
what they had done up until that point
was teachers in the classroom working
with students more consistently instead
of having kids on devices 90% of their
time but that wasn't all he did he also
made it rain he every single teacher
$3,000 at the beginning of every year
and the teachers could spend that on
whatever software technology they wanted
in addition to that if they really like
something and wanted licenses for the
whole school if they got other teachers
and students on board and the
administrators saw that then they'd buy
licenses for everybody and I am happy to
report that last year that first
freshman class made it to senior year
and graduated
100% of them graduated and
100% of them were accepted to four-year
colleges and universities
it's funny to hear you clap because I
certainly can't take credit for that but
I'm glad that I was able to share that
information with you
now as I'm up here you may be thinking
to yourself okay Mary Jo these are a lot
of California examples I don't know if
you know but you're a TEDx Chicago we're
a different place we have other problems
to deal with like when it's negative 10
degrees outside and first off I totally
get it I went to Northwestern go
Wildcats I'm right there with you
anybody at Northwestern yes
this is why I didn't want to do TEDx San
Francisco
but there's actually a similar example
that I want to share with you that's
something for you to be aware of because
I imagine that many of you have students
in CPS some of you may be funders some
of you may be politicians that make
choices that affect the district so in
2016 the Chicago sometimes that summer
reported that more than a thousand
positions were eliminated from Chicago
Public Schools just gone some of which
were teaching positions now
interestingly enough
simultaneously that same summer a
position was posted on the jobs board
for an executive director of
personalized learning and this
six-figure salary to individual was
going to be amongst other things
bringing technology into the system now
it would be unfair of me to say that
there's a direct causation between these
two things but I think it's something to
be aware of
because in my line of work I hear a lot
of people talk and complain about the
1950s vision that we have of the
classroom one teacher up at the front
students facing forward you know
everything's focused on that one teacher
everything is right there but at the
same time I don't know if this situation
is much better and I've seen this live
where students are sitting in desks
tapped in singular device no
collaboration
no project-based learning no
communicating no soft skill development
and where's the teacher
that's why I fundamentally support what
I consider to be the triangular
relationship and that's where you have
to have three individual pieces working
together the student the technology the
teacher
technology is a wonderful thing I'm not
gonna lie to you I see it do wonderful
things in schools all the time I've seen
it offer access to students with
disabilities I've seen students that
aren't able to travel abroad get access
to incredible virtual reality
experiences that open up new worlds for
them
but before I leave today I want to leave
you with one last crucial question
how do we as a collective figure out the
best learning environments for our
students that balance the utility of
technology
with the beauty of human nature because
I'll be honest with you my friends and
I've seen it firsthand the relationships
between teachers and students is sacred
and that should never ever be eliminated
thank you
you
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