#26 - Notes on Technology, Research and Practice
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In each edition of this newsletter, I will share five inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. You can also review the archive (25 newsletters) and future posts by subscribing to this newsletter by clicking the button below.
I wanted to try something new in this edition of the newsletter. In this post I will share one finding, reflection or insight in the following 5 sections of Education Technology, Education Research, Education Innovation, Education Policy and Education Practice
1) Education Technology
As an educator, I love trying out new education technology products. I am also fascinated by the growth of this industry as an educator in the classroom that is often encouraged to try these new products and services. Education Technology is the use of technology to achieve educational outcomes. This is a fast growing industry. Alex Yelenevych stated the following in a December 2022 article about the global education technology industry in Forbes,
The value of the global edtech market in 2021 was $106.46 billion, and it’s just the beginning. From 2022 to 2030, this market is expected to grow annually by 16.5% and is expected to expand 2.5 times from 2019 to 2025, up to $404 billion in 2025.
That is a lot of money. I think it is extremely important for educators to participate in these discussions about the pros and cons of education technology on student learning. Here are brief snippets about some of my favourite education technology products with a link to their website. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects. Math Antics is a series of basic math videos created by Rob and Jeremy of Math Plus Motion, LLC. It’s also a website that offers access to practice materials for paid members. Google Arts & Culture is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
2) Education Research
In this paper published in the American Economic Review in 2014, the academics Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman and Jonah E. Rockoff described the long term impact of teachers on student outcomes in adulthood as follows
A teacher's "value-added" is defined as the average test-score gain for his or her students, adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics (such as their previous scores)…When a high value-added (top 5%) teacher enters a school, end-of-school-year test scores in the grade he or she teaches rise immediately...... and students assigned to such high value-added teachers are more likely to go to college, earn higher incomes, and less likely to be teenage mothers. On average, having such a teacher for one year raises a child's cumulative lifetime income by $80,000 (equivalent to $14,500 in present value at age 12 with a 5% interest rate).
I disagree with their criteria of a teacher’s value added to a classroom environment being directly co-related to the test scores of kids in their class. I believe this criteria does not factor in other important criteria like: student’s past knowledge and skillset; student’s emotional growth and well being; student’s social development with peers; how far student has progressed from start to end of testing period. However, I commend the authors for using a large data set to base their conclusion on, which included using data on 2.5 million students from a large urban school district who attended grades three through eight during 1989-2009. You can continue investigating the findings of this study by reviewing the website or by watching this video presentation on the paper.
3) Education Practice
Brain breaks are fun and engaging activities that can improve a child’s attention, boost their energy and refocus them back to the task at hand. Brain breaks can include going for a walk, doing a dance, playing a game, running around at the gym, eating a snack, drawing an artwork, listening to a song or reading a book. Students may prefer different activities based on their interests and hobbies. I strongly believe creating windows for brain breaks through the day is essential to allow students to focus with engaged attention for the 4-6 hours that they spend at school each day. I love this video on Youtube by Growing Hands on Kids that explains why brain breaks are important for kids,
4) Education Policy
Until September 2022, all Grade 9 high school students in Ontario Canada had an option to study English, Science, French, History and Geography in an applied, academic or locally developed course. This practice was called streaming. This video by Toronto based high school mathematics teacher, Jason To explains the history behind streaming in Ontario and the unintended consequences for indigenous, black and racialized students:
K-12 Education is a provincial responsibility in Ontario. The federal (country level) and municipal (city level) government can provide recommendations. However laws and guidelines for elementary and secondary education are made in the provincial government. In 1999, the province decided to stream students based on perrceived academic ability. This memo by the Durham Catholic District School Board explains the main differences between these streams.
As a teacher I have mixed feelings about streaming. People for Education published a. report in 2017 that stated that students taking applied courses in Grade 9 were much less likely to go to university and that students from low-income groups were more likely to enrol in applied courses. In September 2022, all Grade 9 courses were de-streamed in Ontario which means that all students will take the same courses in the main academic areas. We still need to collect data on the impact of this policy change? I am curious about the thoughts of other educators regarding this important decision. CBC News aims to provide some answers to this question in this video,
5) Education Innovation
Skillshare is an online learning community and website based in the United States for people who want to learn from educational videos. It was founded in October 2017 by Matt Cooper. The courses, which are not accredited, are only available through paid subscription. Anyone can take an online class, watch video lessons, create projects, and even teach a class themselves on Skillshare. I was recently accepted into Skillshare’s Teach Challenge in their July August 2023 cohort. The Teach Challenge gives online creators the guidance and support to create and run their own course on the platform. Teachers are remunerated based on how many watch hours their course gets from paid subscribers on Skillshare’s platform. They give you access to a course titled, ‘Teach on Skillshare: Plan, Publish, and Promote an Engaging Class’. The course includes short videos with lessons on creating and publishing your own class. Once you complete the course you are expected to create an outline and video introduction for your own course. I finished this class last week and learned some important lessons on becoming an online teacher in the following areas:
Crafting your class project
Designing a class outline
Equipment, Lighting and Space
Filming your class
Editing your class
Marketing your class
I think platforms like Skillshare show us that there is an informal network of competent digital creators who want to teach online. The only criteria to become a teacher in this space is your ability to practice what you are teaching in a real world context. If you have a job related to your skill or can make money of your specialised knowledge, you have the basic foundation needed to be an online teacher. You can share your knowledge on digital media platforms even if you do not have access to a physical classroom setup. This informal self sustaining digital learning environment shows us that individuals want to learn new skills and knowledge beyond the formal system of schools and universities. As an online creator and classroom teacher this makes me wonder about the evolution of learning environments in the future. Is there a meeting point for the formal and informal system?
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com or on twitter @AbhishekShetty_. You can find my work online at https://abhishekshetty.carrd.co/. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms.
Abhishek
12/06/2023