Rethinking schools & HTML

In the March 2009 issue of eSchool News, I was happy to read two articles. The first was about a panel created by Cisco Systems arrived at the conclusion we need to rethink schools. Some of the key points were seat time, length of class, the design of the learning space. Many of these ideas have been advocated and prospered by tech educators for decades. Certainly the biggest drawback to the current school for 21st century skills is the nature of the teacher dominated classroom. It is fixed and not malleable for various methods of instruction. The panel suggested collapsible walls, movable furniture. Another interesting conclusion was the issue of seat time. When business is allowing and even suggesting people work from home, schools should be more open to this notion. Cyber Schools are one thing, but the regular schools should be incorporating a more robust cyber program in each school. Assessing this kind of school can be done. We need to think out of the box as the panel has, yet policy makers still aren't paying attention. They function from what they know instead of what is possible. The third important point from this report spoke about the 50 minute class. Obviously this is the most changeable part of the suggestions. Yet schools rarely even do this. Changing school culture is impossible even in the face of intelligent logic and common sense.

In another article I was amused to read that more basic web skills are needed instead of web software. This made me think that HTML is the key to these classes. Web design is simple actually if one draws imaginary lines in the shape of a tic tac toe board on the page. The key is the 9 square design just as seen in print journalism. This way the webmaster can use multiple squares horizontally or vertically. In addition, HTML is the basic language and should be the first place these students start, so that when they begin looking at web developing software, they know how to get under the hood. After all, I would expect the web designer to be to web design as the auto mechanic is to NASCAR. Web software is the death knell, IMHO, to any web design class. Just as frozen or can foods is a no no in cooking class.

What was not reassuring to me as I read these two articles was that these articles highlighted two aspects of technology some of us have been speaking and writing about for years. We practitioners of technology in the classroom are all too well aware of what the panel discovered and the power of HTML.

A third article, online, spoke about how students from Georgia, schooled Congress on the effective use of tech in their classes. What would be really cool was if Congress got it and realized if those students had webpages and digitized portfolios, this could have been done remotely. It sure beats the usual parade of superintendents and educational leaders so far from the front lines and so bereft of educational savvy. Why are we in this current educational quagmire? The leaders are without and they have demonstrated this for years. NCLB is the proof. The biggest tech news out of Congress is their use of Twitter. How sad. Will Duncan be any different?