{"id":804,"date":"2013-12-08T06:34:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T13:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=804"},"modified":"2013-12-10T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T04:43:10","slug":"lausd-viewing-ipads-as-key-to-common-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=804","title":{"rendered":"LAUSD viewing IPads as Key to Common Core"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been in Chicago this week.\u00a0 My colleague David Menefee-Libey, <\/strong>professor of politics at Pomona College reports on this discussion of LAUSD\u2019s iPad purchase program and its relationship to the Common Core of standards.<\/i><\/p>\n

Wednesday evening I attended KPCC\u2019s panel discussion \u201cTech in the Classroom: How Much is Too Much?<\/a>\u201d at their Crawford Family Forum studio in Pasadena. Moderated by their Education Editor Evelyn Larrubia, the panel included Dr. Bernadette Lucas<\/a> of Los Angeles Unified School District, Prof. Patricia Burch<\/a> of USC, and Prof. Nancy Cheever<\/a> of Cal State Dominguez Hills.<\/p>\n

Lucas, Director of the Common Core Technology Project at LAUSD, was on the hot seat for the night, largely because of public controversies surrounding the Common Core nationally and the roll out of the iPad program locally.\u00a0 Larrubia asked more questions of her than the other two panelists, focusing primarily on the iPad program.\u00a0 What are the big ideas behind it?\u00a0 How is it supposed to work?\u00a0 How is it actually working?\u00a0 I\u2019d urge you to follow the link and watch the program<\/a> if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside the popular controversies, which readers can easily follow elsewhere, two big things from the panel stood out for me.<\/p>\n

One is that Lucas spoke in ways that convince me the district sees the iPads (\u201c1 to 1 devices\u201d in district jargon) as thoroughly embedded in the broader chain of ideas of standards-based education<\/a> that has organized the most influential school reform efforts of the past twenty years here and nationwide.\u00a0 These ideas and their jargon are familiar to most of us.\u00a0 Each component of the system is supposed to link to the next in a coherent chain, roughly this way: educational goals ->> content standards ->> \u00a0curriculum and materials ->> pedagogy and instruction ->>assessment ->> reporting and accountability ->> intervention.<\/p>\n

LAUSD decision-makers apparently see the iPads in several \u2013 perhaps all \u2013 links of the chain.\u00a0 The devices will contain the standards-based curriculum now conveyed to student in textbooks.\u00a0 The district claims this content will take new forms, enabling (or requiring) teachers to develop and use new instructional strategies adapted to the needs, abilities, and interests of each individual child.\u00a0 The devices will also be used for the computer-delivered assessments required by the new Common Core (though iPads lack the keyboards required for Common Core testing).\u00a0 Teachers and schools will upload assessment data from each student\u2019s device, data the state will pull together to assess and hold accountable each student, teacher, school, and district in the Brave New World of Common Core teaching and asssessment.<\/p>\n

In short, the iPads are not just some shiny new toy.\u00a0 For LAUSD, they are integral to a whole new way of organizing the district\u2019s entire educational program.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t expect the district to give up on the program any time soon.<\/p>\n

The second big idea of the night at KPCC was caution about the first big idea.\u00a0 Burch, of USC\u2019s Rossier School of Education, talked about her forthcoming book, Privatization and Accountability in Digital Education<\/i> and her own research on technology initiatives.\u00a0 She said there is as yet little research on the impact of \u201c1 on 1 devices\u201d on student learning.<\/p>\n

Burch, while skeptical, did not dismiss the potential value of these new technologies.\u00a0 She was generous in her give-and-take with Lucas.\u00a0 From other research, she said, we know several things that \u00a0would make the iPad program more likely to be successful, including teacher engagement, personalized instruction, interactive digital curriculum that doesn\u2019t simply mimic print textbooks, and careful use of data.\u00a0 Each of these things will require careful attention and hard work from LAUSD and its teachers.<\/p>\n

We now know a bit more about what to look for as the iPad rollout goes on. \u00a0Kudos to KPPC for its initiative in sponsoring the forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been in Chicago this week.\u00a0 My colleague David Menefee-Libey, professor of politics at Pomona College reports on this discussion of LAUSD\u2019s iPad purchase program and its relationship to the Common Core of standards. Wednesday evening I attended KPCC\u2019s panel discussion \u201cTech in the Classroom: How Much is Too Much?\u201d at their Crawford Family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[129,11,7,143],"tags":[166,165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}