21st Century Learning

The Future of Reading

"Technology," computer pioneer Alan Kay once said, "is anything that was invented after you were born."

Isn't that the truth? If it has always been part of life as we know it, then it isn't considered technology. For example, the ink pen was once considered technology and now it is just a common, everyday, writing utensil.

There has been quite a buzz lately around a new gadget that was released this week- Kindle. Newsweek reports, "Jeff Bezos believes he can improve upon one of humankind's most divine creations: the book itself. Kindle, an electronic device that Bezos hopes will leapfrog over previous attempts at e-readers and become the turning point in a transformation toward Book 2.0." Well, like many others- I have my doubts. While I do believe Book 2.0 is a concept whose time is near, this devise is too 20th Century like to really take hold.

Benefits of Book 2.0
There are definite benefits to having an electronic reader --possibly an innovation that could revolutionize a near perfect invention that has stood the test of time. Imagine the impact such a device could have on the developing world. Books are costly to print and more costly to move.This kind of disruptive technology could lower the cost of transporting the best books to the developing world and also lower the cost of ideas/books coming to us from the developing world. Additionally, in these times of angst about global warming, Book 2.0 concepts present a huge opportunity to reduce the negative impact on the environment by changing the process of producing a "book" as we now know it. Or how about the fact that knowledge is changing and expanding at unbelievable rates; many textbooks are outdated almost as soon as they hit the shelves. Medical textbooks need to be updated every year and electronic versions would address this issue nicely.

However, online readers like Kindle have been around for awhile and have not gained popularity. Why? Because new technologies should result in doing things very different from the way it is currently being done. Just taking an analog book and making the text digital ignores the potential of using the Web as a new way of reading. The innovation has to include taking a linear medium and morphing it into a divergent, spiral, hyper, nonlinear form, making use of all the Web has to offer.   

Americans are Reading Less
Recently, the Teacher Leaders Network (my favorite learning community) had a conversation around a new study out related to young people losing a love for reading. According to National Endowment for the Arts, "This study shows the startling declines, in how much and how well Americans read, that are adversely affecting this country's culture, economy, and civic life as well as our children's educational achievement."

Among the key findings:

Americans are reading less - teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time compared with other age groups and with Americans of previous years.        

• Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.
• On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.

Americans are reading less well – reading scores continue to worsen, especially among teenagers and young males. By contrast, the average reading score of 9-year-olds has improved.     

• Reading scores for 12th-grade readers fell significantly from 1992 to 2005, with the sharpest declines among lower-level readers.
• 2005 reading scores for male 12th-graders are 13 points lower than for female 12th-graders, and that gender gap has widened since 1992.
• Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.   

The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications – Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages. Deficient readers run higher risks of failure in all three areas.

• Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension "very important" for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.
• American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.
• Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities – such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising.

Deep Dark Confessions

While we are on the topic of books and reading, I have a confession to make. It is a dark confession for a lifetime educator- are you ready? I do not enjoy reading books. There- I said it. I never have. I suppose it was because the love of reading wasn't instilled in me as a child. I didn't read my first book cover to cover until age 26. Maybe I lack the love of books because my teachers didn't mold and shape me in that direction? Though, I do remember in the 4th grade- "James and the Giant Peach" being read to us and being enthralled. I have since bought several collector copies of the book, however, I associate that memory with storytelling, more than reading.

For the record, I do read. I usually have several nonfiction authors going at a time. I read on every plane flight, and I fly a lot. However, give me a choice between surfing the Web and my aggregator and reading a book- and the first will win out every time. Books are too heavy (I have little hands) and too long! I am always skipping and skimming and then making myself go back and read what I skipped at the end, much like you make yourself take vitamins or do exercise. I know it is good for me, but there is no love affair. When I read, I read like a person who is starving, but if I sit for more than an hour reading, it becomes torture. I survive with lots of stops and starts.

Don't get me wrong, I celebrate books and literacy. I collect paintings of children being read to, they are up all over my home. Unconsciously, I have befriended some of the most voracious readers around; all my friends read and tell me about what they are reading. And just like in school, I can listen to a discussion about the novels and if given a test make an A. I so much believe in reading that for 15 years I only gave books as gifts at any child's birthday party.  I have 11, count them, 11- 5x4 ft bookshelves in my home full of books. My favorite scene in "Beauty and the Beast" is when Beast gives Belle the library. I am a regular customer at Amazon. I'm in love with the ideas found in books and the thoughts they have to share. I always make it a point to visit the bookstores and adore picking out books to read. It is just when it comes to actually reading a book, I have to make myself do it. I always think, there has to be a better way to unlock what is inside.

Childhood and Reading
I knew it was important to instill a love of reading in my children. When my children were born we ditched the TV. We would read and write stories and read some more. As a result I have acquired an extensive children's literature library which I look forward to sharing with my grandchildren.  We did everything that book lovers should do to help nurture a love of reading in our kids, and it paid off, they all read early. However, I still produced one daughter who reads like I do, only nonfiction and just when needed to acquire information.  Her medical career requires her to read to keep current and she copes by going to Starbucks and reading there among people, a preference I attribute to her social learning style. The other three children are all avid readers.

Changing Demographic, Changing Times
So here is my theoretical explanation of why:

1. I am, like many children raised in poverty, an auditory learner. Storytelling and dramatic, loud conversations were a major part of my upbringing. Therefore, learning in a storytelling format feels most comfortable. I learn so much through podcasts, plays, and movies.

2. I also learn best through experience. I like doing and becoming part of what I am learning. Many children of different cultures, English language learners, and children of poverty learn this way as well. Learning by doing is becoming more and more the preferred learning style of children in the 21st Century.

3. We currently have a changing demographic of students. Demographers predict that by 2020 minorities will be the majority in America. Poverty is on the rise. The number of children who have been immersed in mentally stimulating reading environments through technology is also increasing. Kids have trained their brains to learn through active engagement because of video games and websites that require them to "do" something while reading. It has become their preferred processing strategy. We all have preferred processing strategies. For example, you always begin brushing your hair on the same side and always tie the same shoe first. It becomes your unconscious preference. We develop established rituals to learning as well.

4.  Teachers have trained their brains to feel most comfortable reading through a traditional means, so there is a disconnect between an educator's personal schema and what they are seeing in their students. The natural assumption is kids today do not like reading or are not reading as much. When in actuality it might simply be that they are not reading in ways we recognize or legitimize (books). Maybe we just need to update the ways in which we offer reading experiences. All kids still love stories, many just do not relate to the 20th Century reading formats because the synapses of their brains have been "wired" or trained to read in a very different way. Possibly, reading in a more traditional means holds no real excitement as it just takes too long. Hyperlinked reading experiences are very different from linear reading experiences.

5. We will find exceptions to the rule. There will be kids, like mine, who had their learning experiences and preferences trained in traditional means and still worship the printed page. But there will be just as many who are developing their learning style at the foot of the "flickering blue parent" (television and video games) and need something more.

It's a Changing World
We need to understand that in a changing world, education can no longer stand still. If we want to remain relevant in the lives of our learners then we will need to use strategies and materials that fit their learning styles, not our own. Techno-constructivist methodology is the educational language today's learners understand and respond to best. Help provide opportunities for them to read challenging, rich, descriptive language and the classic authors we all love in venues that allow for active engagement and full involvement. I predict that when classrooms change to engage students in the reading process we will see that same sense of wonderment toward reading in kids today that we saw in students of classes gone by, the love of reading and learning is still there, it just needs to be captured through more modern techniques. We need to reinvent the book.

I realize electronic reading (laptops) will never replace curling up with a good book in bed. PDAs are better for that. <smile> Seriously, I am not suggesting we stop your love affair with books or that as educators we not offer books to our students in an effort to cultivate a love for reading. What I am suggesting is that schools not stop there, but rather they offer choice so that all learning styles and all learners are served in today's changing classrooms.

So, I am wondering, am I alone? Are there others out there who believe in reading and promote all that is good about books but secretly hope that the next version of the book will be one that offers a digital twist? If so, please share your thoughts. I promise to read and enjoy doing so.

Geeks and Geezers:How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders

I figure in order for schools to experience the needed reculturing it will require strong leaders, change agents to emerge who understand the process of change. So lately I have been reading lots of books on leadership, which is a good thing since my PhD is in Educational leadership, planning and policy. 

Just finished reading Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas' book Geeks and Geezers. Awesome book on leadership that compares the powerful process through which leaders in any era emerge.

Erica Kolatch explains in her review of the book, "Past studies of leadership often emphasized the importance of age and maturity; Bennis and Thomas initially believed that one's era was a primary influence on leadership. The book begins, in fact, by demonstrating that era determines everything from the heroes people admire, to the books they read, to the worries that occupied them at age twenty-five. But through their interviews with geeks and geezers, the authors discovered that the phenomena of an era play only one part in developing leadership qualities. These phenomena feed into a personal "crucible," a critical experience (or set of experiences) that future leaders draw upon to organize meaning and develop core leadership competencies."

Core Leadership Competencies
Bennis and Thomas call the other factors in one's life that shape a leader, their core leadership competencies.  They found these four present in all the leaders they interviewed. Adaptive capacity - an ability to "transcend adversity, with all its attendant stresses, and to emerge stronger than before." Engaging others through Shared Meaning- an ability to build culture and community in an organization; Voice- a distinctive and compelling sense of conviction, or voice driven from a strong set of values (not necessarily religious); Purpose- that purpose includes vision. "Leaders have to provide some overall sense of direction" and generally be comfortable in their own skin.

The Commonality of Crucibles
Bennis and Thomas found both generations of leaders having similar factors that shaped their ability to become leaders but one was highlighted as being of critical importance  "crucibles." Crucibles are "intense, transformational experiences" from which a leader changes dramatically and emerges much wiser. Crucibles are "often opportunities," says Bennis. The key distinction between crucibles is not whether they are considered negative or positive but whether the leader "dived in versus was pushed in. … Both types of crucibles involve important learning and a degree of stress."

A buzz word that is tossed about a lot is this idea of transformational leadership. Artichoke, a blog that uses an unforgettable writing style that keep you laughing while revealing deep truths, shared some interesting ideas about transformational change and leadership. After reading this book and that blog, I was thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful if the transformations taking place in educational leaders were a direct result of their own personal crucible experiences and somewhere along the way they had become creative adaptive experts who understood how to apply what they learned in the depths of their experience to positive school reform and empowerment of teachers and students.

Adaptive Expertise
The one key asset that both young and old leaders shared was their adaptive capacity. The ability to process new experiences, to find their meaning, and then to integrate them into one's life. Being able to adapt is what enables you to come through a crucible experience and immediately start applying what you learned to survive to other situations.

Are you Developing Adaptive Expertise?
So-- what are you doing to ensure that your students are adaptive experts? How are you preparing them so that when life tosses them into a crucible experience that they will not only survive, but emerge stronger and more prepared. We are teaching the future leaders who will see us through our  years of maturity you know. How are you helping the students you have in your classroom now that are in the midst of their crucible experience understand what a powerful opportunity this experience can become in shaping them as future leaders?

For most of us, trusting our instinct, letting go of what we have been trained to do, the "unlearning" so many are blogging about is the toughest obstacle to becoming an adaptive expert ourselves. As we knowin our hearts,  habit is a great deadener! As educators we need to break out of the day-to-dayness of things in our classroom and reinvent ourselves and our profession to remain relevant. It's observing and realizing that if what we are seeing isnt working, then to not act on it with change is insane.

The observation aspect includes the ability to build an effective network or community of practice, because none of us is as smart as all of us. Bennis tells us that, "Expecting one person at the top to be able to observe, digest, analyze, and then be able to deploy that knowledge successfully is ridiculous. It obviously takes a team of people that collegially can look at the world, observe the world together, and what they don't know, they can explain to each other." If there was ever an argument for using Web 2.0 to build networks, that is it. Connecting with others from around the world and modeling how that plays out to our students is part of developing the ability to embrace ambiguity and then schematically adding what you learn to your exisiting knowledge based. Adaptive experts are able to attach new knowledge to current understanding of personal learning  and creatively see something new. That is why building on the ideas of others is so important. It is through this creative process that we unleash potential and passion in our classrooms in ways we only dreamed possible.

Shared Vision
The real beauty of teacher leadership in action is that effective teacher leaders do not impose their vision on others, rather they recruit others to a shared vision. This is especially true in this digital age where power tends to coalesce around ideas and not position.  For example, a quick read of Will Richardson's blog will serve as the perfect example of this kind of leadership. Being able to not only articulate your vision but communicating it in such a way as to help others own it as well is the sign of leadership. This is why teaching our children to be effective writers and communicators in the 21st Century by using the communication tools of the era is increasingly important. My daughter has a t-shirt I just love... Writing well is the "best revenge" Want to enable your students whose circumstance has conspired against them to break loose from the chains that bind them? Teach them to write well and to use the digital tools of the era, which of course means you too have to know how to write well and make the most of the electronic parchment that is available.

Our role as mentors in the lives of the children we teach is to learn and keep on learning and model that ability to our students. Our role as teacher leaders and change agents is to do exactly the same thing. See yourself not as the ultimate wisdom, but rather as the catalyst. In my opinion, our role as leaders in the 21st Century is to cause those within our spheres of influence to reach beyond their normal capacity, to invent something new with the ideas being shared, something innovative and then be brave enough to put it out here in the blogosphere and let the naysayers have their way with it. Knowing that the dross will fall away and the precious pieces will be assimilated into new concepts and shared vision.

Dee Hock says, "In order to thrive you need a deep love of learning and a refusal to be anywhere that didn't let you learn or prevented you from learning." The shocking reality is that for some of us that might be the schools in which we teach or lead.  Re-culturing is a hard process, most feel change is always premature.  But  learning-- not teaching, not school 2.0, not higher education, is going to be the thing that pushes you to the next plateau. I tend to make my own personal commitments based on the learning or educational potential  that I will get from the person or the situation. 

Providers of Hope
The second major part of adaptive capacity is hardiness, which relates to "the expectation of future success." There's one thing that stands out in most teacher leaders I have met: They have unwarranted optimism, they are what Bennis calls,"providers of hope."

The most important thing I walked away with from the book was the concept of neoteny. The dictionary defines it as Main Entry: ne·o·te·ny
Pronunciation: nE-'ä-t&-nE
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin neotenia, from ne- + Greek teinein to stretch  -- more at THIN
1 : retention of some larval or immature characters in adulthood

Neoteny is more than retaining a youthful appearance, it is the retention of all the wonderful qualities that we associate with our students: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, and energy. For a teacher leader this means  we need to be willing to take risks, be hungry for new knowledge and experience,  be courageous, and eager to see what the new day brings. Neoteny is what keeps those of us who are on the front lines of change focused on all the marvelous things to come. Walt Disney described it as the ability to look at the world with "uncontaminated wonder". It is this ability that will distinguish the successful from the ordinary. And I am hoping for "the children's sake" most of us advocating for change will aspire to be extraordinary.

Photo credit:http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/EUArticle.cfm?ItemNumber=11784