Day 10 Change in K-12 education is slow, but must happen

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Distance driven today: 230 miles / 370 km

Cumulative distance driven: 3,101 miles / 4,991 km (14,000 miles / 22,000 km to go)

Today’s trip: Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA to Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Schools with Kindle e-readers visited: 1

US state border crossings: 1

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We must constantly try new things and experiment with the curriculum and with technology. If we don't, we won't ever make a mistake, and if we don't make a mistake, how will we learn anything new, and how will the students learn and develop new skills?
Principal Tiffnee Hurst, American Heritage, Charter School

Today I spent 2 hours with Principal Tiffnee Hurst, at the American Heritage Charter School, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She showed me the Kindle e-readers we have donated to the school, and we talked mostly about how she would like to use them once she had had one of her teachers set up the devices in Whispercast. The teacher at the school who is overall responsible for IT management, hadn’t figured out yet how to create student accounts and put those into meaningful groups.

I walked Tiffnee through how to create student accounts in Whispercast, plus how she can use the school’s own PDF and Word documents, and send those to the Kindles. I also talked about how she could download the Kindle Reader application for the Google Chromebooks that the school uses. Because the school does not have enough e-readers to give to each student, Tiffnee was very pleased to hear that, students without a Kindle e-reader could still reader the digital books on the Kindle app on the Chromebooks.

Perhaps the most important discussion we had was one regarding the overall attitude towards K-12 education and the use of technology. Tiffnee expressed a frustration over the fact that she had, in the past, worked with a few teachers who did not embraced the introduction and use of netbooks, the Internet and digital e-readers into the classroom. The resistance that some of these teachers expressed seems to be based on a concern that students will sit in front of their screen all day along, and not really learn anything. Most of us who have seen students use computers and technology, know that children are indeed smarter than most of us think they are, and that they quickly learn how to use technology, as well as, how to work around some of the limitations that we adults put in place. Just ask any parent with young children at home and they will verify this fact! The attitude that Tiffnee has encountered by some of these teachers, in other educational settings, simply seem to be uninformed, or flat out wrong.

Instead of fighting against the introduction and usage of technology in K-12, I believe that a far better approach is to embrace it, but in a smart and thoughtful way. And nothing better captures the spirit and the attitude needed to do that, than principal Tiffnee’s comment at the beginning of this post. It is the willingness to experiment, fail, and then try again, that leads to learning and success. The American Charter School in Idaho Falls is lucky to have a leader that sets the right tone for the other teachers and the students there.



Finally, Tiffnee also showed me a book on new educational approaches that she has been inspired by, and will try to adopt in the coming year. The book is called “Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools.” The focus of the book is on helping educators to figure out a practical approach for incorporating online learning with traditional classroom time. It is this type of interest and passion by individuals at local school which has the power to slowly, but surely transform our education system and propel it into the 21^st century. I for sure, learned a lot today by visiting the American Heritage Charter School and hearing the principal talk passionately about how she wants to use technology in her school.

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