Garman attends London symposium, notes how countries emphasize technology
Dr. Douglas Garman wants American students to have the most cutting-edge technology available in the classroom to make their creativity soar.
Garman, the executive director of the Wood County Educational Service Center, recently attended an international symposium in London, England on using interactive technology in education. He represented the U.S. as the past president of the national Association of Educational Service Agencies.
At the symposium, educators from about 30 countries shared how the use of cutting-edge technology - including white boards and smart boards - in their schools helped students learn.
Garman compared technology in education to a "people-mover" at an airport. "Some are suspect of it. Some don't want to get on. Some hop right on it. That's the way our technology is for many of our schools. We have a wide range of skills and abilities in our educators. Globally, some teachers emphasize it. Some encourage it. It comes down to some students know more than teachers and administrators. Many teachers can do e-mail and Google and feel comfortable saying they're 'tech savvy.'"
Yet, Garman said, almost 79 percent of symposium attendees indicated students knew more about technology than they did.
One country which impressed him considerably with its emphasis on education is Kazakhstan in western Asia. With a population of 15.5 million, it boasts a literacy rate of 99.5 percent.

"Their national vision is to become one of the world's 50 most competitive economies. They say 'education is the opportunity for wealth and success in our nation.' This is a nation that says 'we want to be the top, and education is our way to do it.' "
Kazakhstan's president even conducted an online lesson to 1,000 schools which has gone on to e-book format. "All of that is done electronically, through computers, through white boards, (proving) that no one is too far away to share information and dialogue with individuals."
In addition, the country didn't just put technology into the schools; it stressed professional development and getting the teachers ahead of the students as much as they could.
Garman spoke with a math teacher from the United Kingdom who uses the interactive white board in his teaching, making it fun, fast and exciting. Students have hand-held wireless "activote" instruments to respond to items on the white board, using texting or voting on an answer. Since no one knows who gives wrong answers, it's allowed the children with knowledge, but no confidence, to take more chances.
"You've created a whole new child who's going to fly once they get that confidence, 'I know what I'm doing.'"
Garman is disappointed other countries see education as "priority one," while in the U.S. legislators are determining what needs to be done, rather than research. Individuals make sure athletic fields have cutting-edge turf but neglect cutting-edge technology for students. And few students majoring in education have access to the best in educational technology because it's missing from their university or in scarce supply.
In addition, Garman suggested putting the billions of dollars, currently being spent on testing students, into purchasing the technology they need to make them competitive with children in other nations.
"All the testing we do with our kids doesn't make them any smarter. We have to be out front of what our students already know," he said. While testing has improved education, "it has also tied the hands of what education is all about. You can't test critical thinking. You can't test creativity. You can't test inquisitive minds.
"What we need to be doing is going beyond the basics. We need creative thinkers, students not thinking about the end results, but the future. ... I think we have a lot of dreamers, but we have not opened the opportunity to let their dreams come true."
Garman said he came back recharged from the symposium, along with wondering, "What more can we do as an agency to help make a difference to the schools we serve, as well as encourage families to be actively involved in their school curriculum and school leadership to be the very best cutting-edge school in their area?"

WCESC will provide training on white board technology
Wood County Educational Service Center is in the process of installing two state-of-the-art interactive white boards, enabling it to serve as a site for professional training and development within the county and also Northwest Ohio.
Dr. Douglas Garman, ESC superintendent, hopes it results in teachers with white boards in their classroom asking "what more" they can do with them. Garman noted many local school districts have interactive white boards in classrooms, but the majority of teachers do not have the expertise to use them to their fullest potential.
"Teachers who have the time or interest in using the white boards are only using a fraction of what these boards will do," he wrote in an e-mail.
Garman described the two Promethean interactive white boards which WCESC is installing as state-of-the-art because of "their interactive, data driven, aggregate information system that can also have interaction with other classrooms live during use. Nothing is more advanced than these boards."
While attending a recent symposium in England on interactive technology in education, Garman saw a demonstration of live classroom interaction using white boards. The educational secretary of state in the United Kingdom talked with students in Montgomery School in Minneapolis, Minn.
"They saw us. We saw them," he said, adding that the students were excited to be part of an international symposium. "They were demonstrating what they'd been doing with white boards, their learning, their excitement."
Planning for installation of the WCESC's two interactive white boards actually began in summer. Garman was in Vail, Colo., for the national meeting of the Association of Educational Service Agencies where the model was unveiled by Promethean, the global leader in interactive learning technology. At the time, the company offered two jumbo units for the price of one, $6,000. Wood County's ESC is the first such agency in the state to get them.
"We will also have the use of these boards during the professional development training that takes place during normal meetings," wrote Garman. "We hope to also be accommodating to the Wood County business community as they are the lifeline to the greater needs of the Wood County economic development."
One white board has already been installed, and the second one will be added soon. The training of the WCESC staff will be done during the month of January.