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With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school.

A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences. But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. At the same time, the report concludes that those who have the biggest influence on new teachers — veteran educators –  don’t always embrace new ways of using technology to engage students.

Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers. Only 17 percent of current teachers believe technology can help students deeply explore their own ideas, compared to 59 percent of incoming teachers. And 26 percent of current teachers believe students can use technology to apply knowledge to problem-solving, compared to 64 percent of aspiring teachers.

Teachers-in-training say coursework focuses on technologies that help a teacher stay organized, rather than ways to engage students. In their methods courses, where teachers learn the mechanics of running a classroom, 71 percent report that they’re taught to use simple word processing, spreadsheets and database tools, 64 percent report learning how to create multimedia presentations and 55 percent say they’ve learned how to use interactive whiteboards.

“Principals want new teachers to know how to use technology to create authentic learning experiences for students (75 percent) and how to leverage technology to differentiate instruction (68 percent) before they apply for a position at their school,” the report said.

Additionally, principals hope new hires will use social media to connect and communicate with students and parents, as well as their ability to integrate mobile devices, social media, and other digital instruction into their daily teaching. Principals also recognize that a move towards self-directed learning means that new teachers will have to have strong classroom management skills. Almost half of principals surveyed said incoming teachers should have the ability to manage a classroom where students are using their own mobile devices and 25 percent would like teachers to know how to teach an online class.

EXPECTATION VS. REALITY

But there’s a disparity between what principals expect from new hires and what teachers-in-training are learning. A full 72 percent of pre-service teachers report they think they’re being well-prepared to use technology in the classroom. That may be because this is a generation of teachers who grew up using technology — 61 percent use smartphones, preferring them for daily tasks. They are also much more likely to use social media, online discussion boards and other Internet tools to enhance and direct their professional development.

[RELATED READING: Amidst a Mobile Revolution in Schools, Will Old Teaching Tactics Work?]

These incoming teachers appear to be caught between generations. They use technology fluidly in their own lives and to enhance their education, but they’re learning to teach within a system that lags behind the times. Sixty-eight percent of teachers-in-training report they rely most heavily on field placements to learn about how to integrate technology into the classroom. They also watch their professors and take advice from peers.

There was a similar disconnect on metrics about how technology can improve the way educators teach. Teachers-in-training thought technology could help them be more organized, create more interactive lessons, make learning student-centered and would encourage students to be more self-directed, while experienced teachers were much less enthusiastic.

The report attributes the optimism to two main factors. One, teachers-in-training grew up with technology and aren’t afraid to figure out how to make it work in class. They’re also more comfortable looking for resources online and using social media to collaborate with peers. Secondly, as they were growing up they witnessed attempts at technology integration from their own teachers and they have a sense of what works and what doesn’t.

When it comes to using technology in school, the tension between what students and parents want and what schools allow is becoming more apparent — and more divisive.

Students want more control over how they use technology in school, but many classrooms are still making it difficult. That’s according to the most recent Speak Up 2011 report, “Mapping a Personalized Learning Journey,” which reflects the views of more than 416,000 K-12 students, parents, and educators nationwide surveyed on how technology can enhance the learning environment. They survey is produced by Project Tomorrow, an educational non-profit focused on raising student voices in education policy discussions. The theme for this survey focused on individualized learning paths.

Students aren’t just posting personal pictures and stories on Facebook — it’s just as much a part of their social lives as it is a place where they connect with each other for school work, too. According to the survey, 46 percent of students have used Facebook to collaborate on school projects, and one in 10 high school students have tweeted about an academic subject. Meanwhile, in formal classroom settings, the practice of using these online tools as an acceptable means of learning has been slow: half of all middle and high school students say they can’t access social media sites at school. Educational policy makers need to connect the dots between what motivates and encourages students to learn and what’s actually happening in the classroom, the report states.

That connection might be found in students’ own mobile devices. A whopping 45 percent of middle-schoolers and 55 percent of high-schoolers say that they mainly access the Internet through mobile devices. And access to tablets doubled between 2010 and 2011 – up to 26 percent for middle-schoolers and 21percent of high-schoolers. These are increasingly important ways that students can interact with the world, follow their own interests and supplement their school-based learning.

More than half of students – 56 percent of middle-schoolers and 59 percent of high-schoolers — reported that they would like to be able to use their own devices and learning tools in the classroom, something that many parents surveyed said they would support. But the idea is still met with resistance from administrators, 52 percent of whom said they don’t allow students to use any personal mobile device in class, at least partially because a blended learning model represents a shift in the relationship between teacher and student.

Although a nascent Bring Your Own Technology (or Device) movement is beginning to take shape, a full 65 percent of school principals said it was unlikely they would allow personal devices in the coming school year.  This, in spite of the fact that students say the devices will help them, and nearly two-thirds of parents said they would support their children using personalized devices to learn in school. What’s more, parents from across income categories were willing to buy devices for their children in order to increase their interest and engagement in learning.

When parents were asked what most concerns them about their children’s future almost three-quarters said they worry that their children won’t “get the right skills” to succeed in the future.

But students might have to look outside of school for this. Already, 12 percent of high school students have taken an online class on their own, outside of the classroom, to learn about a topic that interested them.

Blended learning classrooms, where students can fluidly use technology as learning tools, may encourage more interest in science and math subjects, too. In the survey, 20 percent of students in classrooms without much technology expressed a strong interest in STEM careers, whereas 27 percent of their counterparts in more student-directed and technology focused classrooms reported interest in the subjects. This indicates that the way kids learn seems to influence what they’re interested in pursuing.

This recent survey clearly points to a disconnect between students’ interest in how they want to learn, and their lack of access to these tools in schools.

Audrey Watters

Another ISTE attendee.

The International Society for Technology in Education held its annual conference and exhibition this week in Philadelphia. While the official headcount has yet to be released, early estimates pegged the number of attendees at over 20,000.

In lieu of our typical weekly review of ed-tech news, we’ve opted to focus instead on some of the announcements that came out of ISTE 2011.

• Educational animation site BrainPOP launched GameUp, a free resource that integrates educational games into the BrainPOP platform. The game titles include “Battleship Numberline” and “Microbes” and come from organizations like iCivics, Filament Games, and Nobelprize.org. The games focus on topics like science, math, and social studies, and like the rest of the BrainPOP materials include supplemental information for teachers such as how to use the game in a lesson, which curriculum standards the game is aligned to, as well as a link to one related BrainPOP topic.
• PBS launched PBS Learning Media, an online resource with over 14,000 pieces of digital content, including video, audio, photos, and more. The content comes from various local public broadcasting stations, as well as other public agencies, such as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and NASA. The site is available to teachers and parents, and the material is all tagged and searchable, so that information can be found by content type, age type or topic. See our full story here.
• ISTE itself released a white paper this week that offers a first look at ISTE’s new standards for technology coaching. The proposed NETS*C won’t be finalized until this fall, but the white paper discusses ISTE’s latest set of standards and the organization’s recommendations for helping integrate technology more fully into professional development.
• Project Tomorrow and Blackboard released a new report examining the rapid acceleration in online learning at the middle and high school level in the U.S. The survey found that the number of high school students who have been involved with online learning has tripled and the number of middle school students who’ve done so has doubled over the last three years. Furthermore, 36% of classroom teachers say that they too have taken some sort of online class. More than 40% of the students surveyed said they see online classes as an essential part of their learning experience, and more parents and administrators are starting to agree. The demand for online learning opportunities is growing, with a third of 3rd through 5th graders saying they’d like to have the opportunity.
• StudySync announced that it was expanding its supplemental curriculum from the high school to the middle school level. The company provides a library of more than 300 videos that help teach literature and writing. The video lessons serve to help students learn how to analyze and appreciate literature, and the StudySync system also includes peer-to-peer interaction, so that students learn to engage in written discussions around literature. In expanding to the middle school level, StudySync has added new level-appropriate titles, including Alice in Wonderland and Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl.
• Sokikom announced the launch of what it’s calling the first massively multiplayer online math game. Geared to students grades 1 through 6, Sokikom’s game lets up to 30 students in a classroom play a game together. Currently Sokikom has 3 games: Frachine, which focuses on fractions, decimals and percentages; Opirate, which focuses on algebra; and Treeching, which deals with measurement, time, and money.
• McGraw-Hill introduced CINCH, an all-digital, cloud-based curriculum for K-12 math and grade 7 through 12 science. The content is available through the browser, meaning that students will be able to access it on any Internet-enabled device. CINCH includes not just digital text but also education games, an assessment component, and social networking elements (such as commenting within the curriculum). McGraw-Hill says that the content in CINCH is customizable by districts and teachers and is aligned to Common Core State Standards.
• Interactive whiteboard maker Promethean announced a partnership with the Channel One Network. Promethean Activboards will get access to the daily Channel One news, supplemented with various interactive tools.

Lenny Gonzalez

Would parents pay for mobile phones if schools allowed them to be used as learning tools? Most would, according to the recent Speak Up 2010 report — 67 percent of parents, to be exact.

We took this data a step further and asked MindShift readers if parents would pay for data plans, specifically to be used for Internet research and classroom projects. Most said they would, some said they’d first want to consider how student searches would be monitored, and a few grumbled about having to pay even more for services the school should provide.

Comments ranged from, “Wow, the school system begging from the parents again” to a more capitulated perspective. “Lately we [parents] get asked to pay for so much extra stuff in schools. We pay the suggested money to feed classroom animals and more for science education materials,” said Baat Enosh, mother of a kindergartner. “If I thought that having phones in class would help kids learn, I’d be pretty positive about it. I equate it to the expensive scientific calculators that our families used to be asked to buy for us.”

One reader pointed out that if schools provided wireless access, wifi-enabled phones would obviate the need for data plans.

Stacey Foreman, mother of two grade-school-age sons, said she wouldn’t question paying for monthly plans if they assisted learning. “Kids are native to digital information–we’re making it harder for success by pretending that media aren’t evolving. Lugging around outdated textbooks and completing paper worksheets are barriers to learning in this day and age.” Lots of students feel the same way.  Project Tomorrow report found that 53 percent of middle and high school students surveyed said that their biggest obstacle to using technology in school is the inability to use devices such as cell and smart phones.

For many parents, the issue of phones in classrooms is about educational gain and safety.

Rashmi Sinha, mother of a preschooler, said her primary concern in sending her daughter to class with phone in hand would be its educational benefit. “How would usage be monitored? How would we be sure kids are using devices to learn? Mobile usage is a skill they need anyhow, but I’d want to know the teachers’ plans before I paid.”

Therese Jilek, a Wisconsin-based parent, would request schools to provide a plan for learning, instruction and supervision practices that involve mobile devices. She’d want built-in safeguards and student instruction on safe Internet use, she said.

When it comes to accessing online textbooks with mobile phones, 61 percent of parents said they like the idea, according to the Project Tomorrow report.

“With the Kahn Academy, DIY University and other [resources], eventually we will deconstruct the economies built around traditional educational institutions and all that goes with them–expensive books, curricula, etcetera,” said Jean Hagan, creative director and the think tank Institute for the Future. “The technology is just the enabler, but we are on the brink of education reform like the U.S. has not seen in decades.”

The inevitable question looms: What happens to those families who might want to, but can’t afford to pay for expensive data plans? The issue bounces back to schools providing wireless Internet access — and how much of the Internet is blocked. Goes to show how dependent schools, parents, and educators are on each other.

[Additional reporting by arts and culture commentator Emily Goligoski: @emgollie]

Flickr:Husky

Project Tomorrow has just released the results of its Speak Up 2010 survey that asked over 300,000 students (and 43,000 parents, 35,000 teachers, and 3,500 administrators) about their thoughts on technology and learning in the classroom. The results confirm what many of us already know: Children have access to a wide variety of technologies, both at home and at school.

Take for example, these statistics comparing 6th graders today with those from just five years ago. In 2005, half of the 6th graders surveyed said they own a cellphone. Today, that same statistic holds true, but now an additional one-third say they own a smart phone. Almost 73% say they own an MP3 player, compared to just a third in 2005. Half of all 6th graders take tests online and three times as many have taken an online class as did in 2005.

Almost half of 6th grade girls and over a third of 6th grade boys say they regularly update their social networking profiles – up over 125% from five years ago. This, despite the fact that most 6th graders are not old enough to legally register on many of these sites.

But here is the statistic I found particularly striking. In 2005, the 6th graders complained that the Internet at their school was too slow. Today, their number one complaint is that school filters and firewalls block the websites they need to do their school work. It wasn’t just the main complaint of 6th graders — 71% of high school students and 62% of middle school students said that greater access to the Internet was the number one thing their school could do to make it easier to use technology.

Of course, removing filters and blocks at school is easier said than done. CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act, requires that schools and libraries receiving federal E-rate funding have protective measures in place when it comes to students’ Internet access. But there’s often a gap between the mandate for and the practice of filtering and blocking.

CIPA requires institutions have an Internet safety policy that addresses blocking or filtering access to images that are obscene, child pornography or harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). It requires a method for monitoring (not tracking) activities.

CIPA, along with the other regulations that are frequently invoked in discussions of blocking (namely FERPA and COPPA, both of which address data privacy), is meant to protect children online. But as teacher-educator Tom Whitby argues in a blog post, “World’s Simplest Online Safety Policy,” these regulations “were not created to keep students stuck in the past, educated in a disconnected school environment that shares little resemblance to the real world for which we should be preparing our children. These acts do not say we can’t publish online student’s names, videos, work, pictures, etc. They do not prevent us from using social media, YouTube, email, or any of those things that may be blocked in many school districts. An important goal of education is to strive for creation and publication of content by students. In today’s world technology and the Internet are an essential components of that process.”

Based on the results from the Speak Up 2010 survey, students seem to realize that, even if schools and districts are reluctant to do so. As students’ access to Internet — for better or worse — may be unrestricted at home, they are increasingly frustrated to find the tools they use the most are unavailable at school. Not surprisingly, many students also listed restrictions on cellphones as a major barrier to their technology usage at school. And while cellphones offer a lot of things (including, of course, access to teens’ favorite communication platform, text-messaging), a data plan also means that a student can have access to sites that a school may block on its network.

Blocking and banning, Whitby argues, are just the “easy way out,” and schools need to do more to help teach kids how to behave and search responsibly online. How can schools navigate what seem to be very challenging waters, balancing the demands of students for more open access and fears from adults that they’re not ready for it?